You may have noticed I haven't been posting much around here. There are several reasons, from being busy, to not having much unique to say, to being tired of most of what passes for polical discourse these days (You're evil! You're eviler!! You're evilest!!! You're evil infinity!!!!!), and to self-imposed standard that after not posting awhile I have to have post that makes up for the time away. So I'd like to thank Carl, still desceased according to the Stanford Alumni Association, for writing a blog post that makes up for my not posting for months on end.
So let me do an incomplete speed round on while I've been gone:
Larry Craig - he did the right thing by resigning, and yes we should actually have police officers maintain order in public bathrooms so they don't become nothing but tea-rooms. I'm not a fan of the put all our police in one basket theory of law enforcement for too reasons - (1) it's the typical cry when somebody is caught doing something illegal that the police ought to be concerned with real criminals, and since there is a worse criminal for everyone except for the actual worst criminal, it's just a cop out, (2) theory and practice have shown that you need to sweat the small stuff when it comes to keeping order which should be the main function of police work.
I don't imagine the police like such duty, but somebody has to take out the trash.
I happened to be in an Apple store this weekend (or the Temple as I affectionately call it) and noticed two things - it was a lot more crowded than anywhere else in the mall, and the iPhone is a joy. I hate my cell phone, and if I could persuade myself, let alone the funWife, that it was worth all that money I'd own one. The interface is simply amazing and, yes, intuitive. I was able to navigate and have a ball just from having read a review. Based on sales figures, America agrees with me to the tune of making it the best selling smart phone out there. [full disclosure, I own Apple stock.]
Why doesn't Congress provide benchmarks for all of our Government activities? And isn't all the testing requried under No Child Left Behind benchmarks?
1998 isn't the hottest, fourth hottest, or even 1 millionth hottest month on record. Not if the record stretches back more than 150 years, but actually is the record of our best estimate of global temperatures over the eons.
That's all I have time for today, thanks for your attention, and tune in again next time (whenever that is).
It's deja vu all over again. Welcome back.
Am I still dead? Dang it, I gotta get me a P.R. rep or something. I'm not making nearly as much money as Elvis!
I wrote to the Stanford Alumni Association a few years ago, assuring them that I am still breathing and have a pretty good heartbeat. For a dead guy, I did rather well in the NCAR Up-The-Hill Race:
http://www.ucar.edu/eac/events/UpTheHill/results_07/bikelist.html
Here's a true story about being dead: In 2002 we had our Stanford 20-year reunion. I could not attend because of family and work commitments. The reunion book published my name under the "In Memoriam" section. When you get those reunion announcements your mind wanders back . . .
And I got to thinking about my college friend Steve Garza, whom I knew from dorms and roommates and a vacation trip we took one summer to Lake Tahoe. I decided to look him up on the Internet. The only clue I had was that he worked for IBM.
Well, after some digging I found that there were TWO IBM employees named "Steve Garza". Might as well try one and then the other. So I sent a message to Steve Garza #1 saying something like, "Hi, it's Carl Drews. Are you the Steve Garza whom I went to Stanford with and you played in the band and we had that great summer at Theta Xi and we went camping that weekend to Lake Tahoe and had a few brews and climbed Mt. Tulac and had a few more brews and played ultimate frisbee and you'd always laugh about it when I saw you for years afterwards?"
I cracked up when the answer came back: "No, I'm not that Steve Garza. But you really gotta keep trying to find him! It sounds like you guys had a really good time and I encourage you to get together again. Don't stop looking!"
Steve Garza #2 was the correct one. Yay! He said he was sad to see my name listed "In Memoriam", and was delighted to hear from me!
Yes, I was sad to see you were still listed "In Memoriam" for the 25 year reunion book. You were absent from the geographical listing of alumni as well.