“That’s gonna kill you someday!”
Ξ July 24th, 2008 | → 2 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
My dad absolutely loved every kind of food that was bad for him. For example, he wanted at least one meal of biscuits and gravy every day, and if mom didn’t prepare it for him he would “fix it” himself. And he would rather have had a needle stuck into his eye than for you to trim the fat from a piece of meat. In fact, he loved fat meat so much that he would open a can of “pork and beans” and skip everything but the pork! And to top it all off he smoked for decades.
Of course everyone who knew and loved him told him that smoking and eating all that fat and grease “was gonna kill him someday”, and sure enough it did. He suffered a heart attack during surgery and passed away in 2000. He was 82.
The people (including me) who told dad that eating all those unhealthy meals would come back to haunt him eventually did so out of love and concern, but I believe we all missed an important point. One of dad’s great pleasures in life was eating the “country cookin’” that he learned to love so much as a child growing up in his large family’s Widener Valley, Virginia home, and he wasn’t about to give up that important part of his lifestyle in the quest to eek out another year or two of life here on planet earth.
Life is way too short to spend each and every day of it thinking of ways to make it a little longer and giving up the things we thoroughly enjoy in an often-vain attempt to prolong it. Famed runner Jim Fixx is credited with helping kick-start the current American fitness revolution with his best-selling 1977 book “The Complete Book Of Running”, yet as fit as he appeared to be, he ended up dying from a massive heart attack seven years later at the young age of just 52.
The fact is, short of suicide we humans have little control over the timing of our own demise. Some people die in accidents, and some even succumb to genetic defects they never even knew they possessed. Only God Himself knows when and how we’ll pass away, and He is the only one who can really alter that schedule if he so chooses.
Now I’m not suggesting that we should simply live life with abandon, ignoring all that good advice about eating healthy, not smoking, and exercising daily. It’s clear that living a healthy lifestyle increases one’s odds of living a longer, healthier life. I also firmly believe that my dad suffered through years of unnecessary health problems that were caused by his poor diet and a virtual life-long smoking habit.
That being said, dad had apparently weighed the joy he knew he would receive from partaking in those unhealthy habits against the almost certain health risks, and he made the decision to eat what he wanted and smoke his cigarettes. Who am I to say that he made the wrong choices? After all, he lived to the ripe old age of 82, and he spent most of those years enjoying the things that gave him the most pleasure.
The planned obsolescence of computer software
Ξ July 22nd, 2008 | → 2 Comments | ∇ Pet Peeves |
One of my greatest pet peeves is the diabolical scheme that the software companies have devised to keep separating their loyal customers from their dollars: the strategy of planning for the eventual obsolescence of their own products.
If you’re like me you have no doubt noticed how there seems to be a new version of your favorite program available on a regular basis, often within mere months of the release of the previous version. Of course these “upgrades” promise (and usually deliver) more features and easier day-to-day use, but these enhancements always come at a price that is way too high in my opinion for an upgrade to a product that you have already bought and paid for.
It wouldn’t be so bad if upgrading was always purely an option, but it isn’t. As many of us discovered when we bought a new PC with Windows Vista pre-installed, a number of our tried-and-true software programs that had worked just fine for years suddenly went belly-up. Now the only way to use them with Vista is to upgrade to the latest version. Argh!!!!
This of course brings me to the biggest offender of all: Microsoft. The boys in Redmond have fine-tuned the “upgrade process” until it’s nothing short of a virtual mint. But along with every new version of Windows also comes a plethora of new bugs and annoyances. Even worse, after a short while upgrading becomes mandatory because they “sunset” the older versions (stop supporting and releasing security updates for them).
Microsoft has been wanting to move their software business from a purchase model to a subscription model for quite some time now. For example, instead of paying a higher price up front for a full version of Windows Vista, you would pay a smaller fee once a month - say $15. All of a sudden the privilege of using that huge compilation of bugs and aggravation will set you back $180 each and every year instead of roughly that same amount once!
The fact of the matter is, Windows has already been sold on a virtual subscription basis for many years via the “upgrade process”. What Microsoft hopes to do is simply shorten the interval between payments from every few years to once a month - and make them truly mandatory each and every month. Miss a payment and your PC stops booting up. How do you like those apples?
Along with most software upgrades come real and tangible benefits that at least give you something in return for having to lay out the extra money. New features, easier ways to complete routine tasks, and enhanced program stability are the norm with the upgrades released by most companies, but not Microsoft’s.
Sure, as they did with Vista they’ll make some changes and add a few new features (which have usually been available from other companies for years), but the same old bugs will still be around along with a few new “friends” they picked up along the way. Add in a never-ending supply of new security holes and you soon realize you would have been better off sticking with XP (the only operating system they ever managed to “get right”). Oh wait, you can’t stick with XP - not for much longer anyway. It’s going to “sunset” before you know it! Argh!!!
I’m sorry that this post has turned out to be mostly about Microsoft, but they truly are the biggest offender, and by a whopping margin. Hey guys, how about putting a bit more of your R&D budget into security and stability and a little less into developing buggy versions of new “features” that can be found elsewhere for a lot less and with fewer problems? After all, Windows is an operating system, not an application.
Here’s a novel idea for you: How about concentrating your efforts on providing our PC’s with a safe and stable platform to run on and leave the development of useful programs to the guys who know how to do it best?
Headlines that make your head spin
Ξ July 18th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
I logged onto my favorite “News” website this morning and saw the following headline:
“Citigroup posts $2.5B loss, but beats expectations”
Now I’m not very knowledgeable in the field of high finance, but it boggles my mind that a company can lose 2.5 BILLION dollars and have that fact be considered “better than expected”. Most Americans would consider losing 2.5 THOUSAND dollars a tragedy, yet the major corporations can lose billions and simply shrug it off as if it’s nothing.
Of course I’m just a country boy from the hills and hollers of southwestern Virginia, but things like this really don’t leave me with all that much confidence in the stock market.
Add a “Nofollow” check box for Wordpress Blogroll links
Ξ July 18th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Technology |
In my opinion, Wordpress is without a doubt the finest blog platform around. There is one glaring omission however…
When you add a link to the blogroll there is no easy way to mark it as “Nofollow”. But after doing a bit of research on the web I found a very simple way to add a “Nofollow” check box to the “Add Link” admin page:
1 - Find the edit-link-form.php file in the /wp-admin/ folder and make a backup copy of it. (You should always make a backup copy any Wordpress file before making changes to it).
2 - Open the edit-link-form.php file and search for the following lines:
<tr>
<th scope=”row”> <?php _e(’identity’) ?> </th>
3 - Insert a blank line before those two lines and add the following code:
<tr>
<th scope=”row”> nofollow </th>
<td>
<label for=”nofo”>
<input class=”valinp” type=”checkbox” name=”nofo” value=”nofollow” id=”nofo” <?php xfn_check(’nofo’, ‘nofollow’); ?> />
nofollow</label>
</td>
</tr>
Note: For best results, copy the code above into Notepad, then copy and paste it into the edit-link-form.php file.
4 - Save the file and upload it to the /wp-admin/ folder on your server.
From now on you will have a check box on the admin page where you add links to the blogroll. Check the box and the link will be designated rel=”nofollow”. Leave it unchecked and the search engines will follow the link as usual.
Remembering Tony Snow
Ξ July 13th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
Our nation has lost a great patriot and a fine man with the sad passing of Tony Snow. In addition to serving two Presidents, Tony spent much of his adult life behind either a television camera or a radio microphone bringing us news and commentary on all things political.
Although he was a staunch conservative who was always eager to lead the charge in defense of traditional causes and policies, he never spoke down to his guests or made them feel less than equal to himself. This man was truly one of the good guys in the media.
Tony lost his long, difficult battle with colon cancer yesterday, and glowing tributes quickly began pouring in from his colleagues and politicians from both sides of the political aisle. Even most of the folks whose views and opinions were diametrically opposed to his had nothing but praise for him as a man and as an American.
All Americans should mourn the passing of this great man. He was honest, respectful of all, and a crusader for conservative ideals to the very end. He loved God, his country, his family and his work, and now his long struggle with cancer has ended at the young age of 53.
We’ll miss you Tony.
Robert Anthony Snow
June 1, 1955 – July 12, 2008
The mixed legacy of President George W. Bush
Ξ July 4th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
George Walker Bush began his two terms as President in 2000 with a rare opportunity to push the conservative agenda to new heights and get positive results in many areas where others had failed. After all, the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, and given his campaign promises to govern as a “compassionate conservative” the stars seemed to finally be in perfect alignment for those who had gone out on a limb by backing him to reap some great rewards for their efforts. But alas, it quickly became apparent that he was going to waste virtually every golden opportunity put before him.
First, let’s consider the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is no question that he did the right thing by sending our troops into Afghanistan to take out the Taliban and shut down the Al-Qaeda training camps after the horrendous attacks they perpetrated on our country on September 11, 2008. Our men and women in uniform did a spectacular job as expected, and they completed their assigned mission in short order.
While the President’s decision to go into Iraq wasn’t nearly as convincing as the one to go into Afghanistan, given the intelligence he had to work with at the time I supported that decision, and I still do. And once again, as expected, our troops kicked butt and took names, and in relatively no time at all they had decimated Saddam Hussein’s military regime and toppled him from power. And that’s where both campaigns should have ended…
But unfortunately, they didn’t. Instead of leaving the Afghans and Iraqis to clean up their own messes, Bush decided to embark on a pair of nation-building experiments that were destined for failure from the start. The mistake he made was simple, yet profound: He believed that the people we had just liberated in those countries would love us and rally around us, and allow us to help them set up a democratic form of government similar to our own. Had he paid attention in his world history class and spent some time watching the evening news he would have realized just how foolish that idea would inevitably turn out to be.
Radical Muslims simply do not see the world (and life in general) as we Americans do, and unfortunately in most Muslim countries the radicals tend to rise to power. Apparently Bush missed the lesson that most of us learned from the events that took place in Iran after the Shah was deposed in 1979.
The President made the ill-fated decision to stay in Iran and Afghanistan long after our work there was done, hoping against all reality to make some new friends and allies in the region. But those folks will never be our friends and they certainly will never be our allies, and Bush should have known that.
We would have been much better off getting out of those countries as quickly as possible, leaving behind only a stern warning: “We took care of business once, and we can and will do it again. Shape up, or we’ll be back and you REALLY won’t like us when the dust settles next time.”
The bottom line is that our military has no equal when it comes to fighting and winning wars, but they are not in the businesses of “keeping the peace” or “nation-building”, nor should they be - especially when the people involved have nothing but utter contempt for our nation and our ideals.
Oh well, enough ranting about the wars…
Domestically, Bush’s legacy has been even more disappointing. He has somehow allowed most of his conservative promises and opportunities to slip right through the cracks. Again, he made a very simple, yet profound mistake: He believed that he could use his power of gentle persuasion to entice enough Democrats to support his proposals to get them through the Congress. Again, he was wrong.
Why? Quite simply, the Democrats absolutely despise him. They believe down in their collective heart that he “stole” the 2000 election from Al Gore (he didn’t of course, but they honestly believe he did). They were bound and determined from January 20, 2000 on to see to it that he failed at everything he tried to do, and for the most part they have succeeded in spectacular fashion.
Unlike President Reagan, Bush was unable and/or unwilling to use the powerful combination of charm and arm-twisting to push his agenda through the Congress. His vetoes have been way too rare and much too ineffective, and he left his conservative allies in Congress hanging in the wind so many times that they all but abandoned him for the last three years of his Presidency.
Worse still, it turns out that he was never a true conservative at all. His stances on illegal immigration, NAFTA, and a host of other crucial issues are about as liberal as they come. And don’t even get me started on the spending spree he has allowed (encouraged?) the Congress to go on during his administration.
I guess by now it’s quite clear that I’m deeply disappointed by the way President George W. Bush has led our nation over the last 7+ years, but there is one shining star in his legacy that pretty much evens out the scales. Whether by design or sheer luck, he managed to appoint and get confirmed two of the finest Supreme Court Justices to ever sit on the bench in Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.
While not quite as conservative as their colleagues Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, they understand very clearly that their role as Supreme Court Justices is to interpret the Constitution literally while abstaining from the natural desire to color their decisions with their own personal beliefs and prejudices. During their short tenure on the court they have proven that they take their jobs very seriously and plan to enforce the law of the land (the U.S. Constitution) instead of trying to make laws of their own choosing. And in my opinion that is much more important than their ideological bents.
So there you have it. As President Bush and his family prepare to head off into the sunset, I wish them well. After all, just being elected to the Office of President of the United States is worthy of deep respect and honor. That being said, it’s too early to tell just how historians will treat the 43rd President, but my guess is their opinions will be somewhat similar to mine: Lot’s of failures, and one overwhelmingly important success.
Godaddy.com’s tribute to Independence Day
Ξ July 3rd, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ My thoughts on... |
Bob Parsons, the founder and CEO of Internet giant Godaddy.com isn’t at all shy when it comes to discussing his patriotism and his support for our troops. Click this link to watch Godaddy’s wonderful video tribute to Independence Day and all the fine men and women who work so hard to keep us all safe and free.
Watermelons: Icons of summertime
Ξ July 3rd, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Things I like |
As we head into July and the heart of summer, I’m reminded of one of the most beloved icons of the season: the watermelon. Summertime is watermelon season, and as always happens around the 4th of July holiday the stores have just lowered the prices on those sweet, juicy melons from what had been about the price of a small house to those of, well…watermelons.
As a kid I used to love sitting on the front porch on a hot summer day eating an ice cold slice of watermelon, spitting out the seeds between each delectable bite. Inevitably, a few of those seeds would come up and grow into mature watermelon vines, but for some reason they never seemed to produce any edible melons. But the stores always had plenty….
With eight kids to feed on a wafer-thin budget, mom and dad usually only bought watermelons on special occasions such as the 4th of July, family reunions and such, but every once in a while they would bring one home along with the regular groceries. Those unexpected treats were always appreciated, and it never took very long for the last slice to be finished off. Mom and dad both loved watermelons just as much as us kids, but they always made sure we got our fill before they got theirs.
Well, Cheria and I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon, and one of the first things we encountered inside the store was a huge pile of watermelons, all marked down to the low price of just $3.98! I carefully checked them over, giving several of them a hard knock or two with my fist to see which one “sounded the ripest”. I made my choice, and confident with my decision I placed the “winner” into the buggy.
When we got home I lifted that green piece of heaven into the fridge to cool overnight, and cool it did. About an hour ago I pulled it out and sliced it open, only to discover that my melon of choice wasn’t all that ripe after all. But you know what? Cheria and I both ate our slices of that not-so-ripe watermelon with great enjoyment indeed. After all, watermelons are a lot like banana pudding - the worst I ever had was pretty doggone good!
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