Life
A splash of determination
If there is a better motivator to clean a messy desk than spilling a half a glass of water across it, I do not know what it is.
Steve Casburn
Yardwork
When is a lawn not a lawn?
Before moving into my current rental, my lifetime experience with yardwork was nearly nil, which means that I am learning as I go. Earlier tonight I took my first close look at the front lawn (most of my work in the front yard so far has been pulling ivy, weeding
Yardwork
Weekday weeding window wanes
The days are quickly getting shorter and weeding the yard after work will soon become impractical, so I am getting out into the yard now every chance I get. The upside is that I will probably get the yard into the shape I want it to be before the rainy
Texas
Hurricane Ike
When I lived in Houston, I worked in the building that is in the upper right of this photograph. Wow. Worse than Allison, and Allison was bad. I hope things are better than they seem… Update: Thomas Gray survived the storm and Rob Booth seems to have thrived during it.
History
GOP words of wisdom
For the 1916 presidential election, Republican leaders tried to find a candidate who could unite the party, after the Progressive split of 1912 had cost the GOP the presidency. The elders' first choice for a unifier was Elihu Root, who had won the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize and been
Politics
Here we go again
The GOP message to the base in 2000: "After eight years of that elitist liberal Bill Clinton, we need to send a good, earthy Christian like George W. Bush to Washington to clean up politics." The GOP message to the base in 2008: "After eight years of
Portland
Fire down the road
Few things are as bracing as leaving work in the evening, looking into the distance, and noticing a pillar of thick black smoke rising from the street you live on. Fortunately for me, the fire was about two miles down the street from my house. And the wind was blowing
Politics
Overmaking a point
Seen this afternoon at The Original Pancake House: A guy wearing a Ronald Reagan t-shirt with a McCain/Palin button pinned to it, and carrying a copy of Barry Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. I resisted the temptation to walk over to him and say: "Dude…
Portland
New Yelp! Reviews
I have two new reviews on Yelp!: Glowing Greens in Downtown Bluefin Sushi Bar in Hollywood
Music
Chick-a-boom, chick-a-boom
The Temptations work out on "I Can't Get Next to You". This one also impresses.
Philosophy
The virtue of simplicity
In Book II (369a-372d) of the Republic, Socrates reasons step-by-step through what would be required to create a simple and harmonious city, one in which the citizens "will live in peace and good health, and when they die at a ripe old age, they will bequeath
Politics
The McCain-Palin ticket
The GOP has nominated a ticket of which both ends are unfit for the presidency. John McCain is unfit because he is a 72-year-old whose mental faculties are evidently declining. The presidency is a mentally and physically demanding job, and McCain is not up for it. Sarah Palin