Stay Out of the Water!

Warning signs were posted Wednesday along Waikiki's world-famous beaches. The signs warned people to stay out of the water!

But the problem was not a shark! An aging (installed in 1964) water main failed and millions of gallons of untreated sewage poured into the ocean. This is bad and all, but the ASCE blog hints at the statement, "We told you so!"

The U.S. is not that short on civil engineers to solve the infrastructure problems. The U.S. IS short on funding. Do I have the answer? No, but something needs to be done before a worse incident happens.

What is wrong with today's world?

Too many people procrastinate. And there is too much beaucratic red-tape.

I just read that the bill (anti DRM) that the French Assembly recently passed won't go to the Senate until May. Note that it won't GO to the Senate until May, who knows when they will vote on it! Maybe if more governments worked like the Washington and South Dakota State Legislatures things wouldn't be so bad. What I mean is that Washington and SD legislatures meet for only a few months at the beginning of every year. This forces a timeline at the legislatures and keeps them on task.

But then again, I was always one of those people who nearly always had assignments/projects done ahead of schedule throughout school and college. I can only think of one person who makes me look like a procrastinator!

Another problem I have is with the judicial system in the U.S. Lawyers have made the whole system so complicated that it takes years for anything to happen! Reminds me of a Farscape ep

But how else could things be handled, you ask?

Well, Singapore has a decent method. So did British Navy ships of yore. This may seem cruel, but I believe that for certain crimes and individuals it may work better than prison time. Free food and shelter? I mean c'mon. I did happen upon a photo of a Singapore caning. I will warn you that it is somewhat graphic, probably would be rated R by the movie industry. Here is the link for those who don't heed my warning.

Another, better, option is free labor. But it needs to go further than the SD DOC. I am not sure on the best apporach to this though, because of the need for guards.

And, now I will end my ranting
everyone: [whisper] "finally"

Confession

I have a confession to make...

I... am... evil. An evil "traffic engineer."

Today at work, I found myself analyzing a proposed roundabout. I found out that in 20 years the roundabout still won't be at 50% capacity, in other words, it will support the traffic at a high level of service (LOS).

Actually, it isn't even a project of mine. Since I gained experience with traffic analyses at work in the last few months, I am one of the more qualified people (scary, huh?), besides the Region Traffic Office. Btw, the Region Traffic Office can't work on it, because they are already over worked (and under staffed).

Short, sweet, and to the point!

I had my phone interview with the SDDOT Office of Bridge Design today. I think it went well. Or at least I feel good about my responses. I was the first person interviewed for the positions (2), so I won't hear anything for 2 - 3 weeks. I will keep everyone informed. Now I am going to watch Dark Kingdom.

Shark Ride!

A friend recently blogged about McDonald's lack of respect for sharks. He mentions a commercial showing a young woman taunting a shark with a filet-o-fish sandwich. Well, if this is disrespecting sharks, then what would you call the latest X-game?
Well, ok it is just a Diet Mountain Dew commercial, but I think it may catch on! You see people do this trick with dolphins all the time (on tv at least) but to catch a ride on a shark? That takes some insanity... or foolhardiness ;)

As thrilling and adrenaline pumping as this could become, my friend is right, it is not a good idea to frell (literally and not literally) with sharks.

Not so random wanderings!

Well, I went on another one of my blog-famous outings and I discover that Yakima no longer need to fear the wendigo until next winter (hurrah)! The canal, the wendigo uses to access the town, is now filled with water for the summer.

I finally found some good hiking and mountain biking trails. They are all along Cowiche Canyon. I began the "roll" down to the canyone bottom, but this trail is best suited for hiking due to the large rocks and steep grade. So I turned around (further down than the pic shows). I plan on hiking it next weekend; I am not as crazy on a bike as I am on foot or in a kayak ;). There are trails along the top though that are nice for biking. Normal lanscape for this part of Washington, notice the devil's vegetation, sagebrush:
Looking southeast (towards glorious SD), you can see part of Yakima. I nearly edited this pick to show a SD flag in the background, but I managed to resist (a first!).

Dark Age Ahead: Last Three Chapters

Self-Policing Subverted

This chapter takes a look into self-policing efforts by professional organizations. The author slams accountants for situations like Enron. She calls the tricks and deceptive accounting mad: "this was accounting gone mad," where mad(ness) is defined as the loss of connection with reality. She points out that deceptive accounting has been happening since the mid-1980s. A consequence of that decade's frenzies of mergers and takeovers. Business schools are not blameless, though. In 2002, three of America's most prestigous universities held a seminar in Chicago for executives from the nation's largest corporations. The purpose was to offer guidance concerning accounting malpractice. You might think that the advice given was "Don't do it. Don't allow it," but you would be wrong! According to a New York Times reporter, that was present, they were told not to volunteer any information for a legal desposition or "Don't ask, don't tell." The author also discusses plausible denial, false imagery, and legitimate accounting puzzles, I won't get into them here, but I recommend searching for the book at your local library or bookstore.

Unwinding Vicious Spirals

I was kind of disappointed with this chapter. I expected a vivid depiction of what the next Dark Age will be like, but instead the author concentrated on housing problems. She traces the housing shortage problems and dilapidation back to the 1930s and 40s. Dilapdiation became a problem in part to solutions to the housing shoratge problem. Large family apartments were divided up into smaller, low rent accomodations.

By the end of WW2, affordable housing shortages had become a crisis. Public policies to address them fell into three categories:

1. court enforced rent control
2. slum clearance and subsidized housing
3. long term, low interest mortages (to encourage construction for home ownership)
   

Rent controls helped to keep profiteering landlords in check and decreased evictions. (Even though it seems to be communism or socialism to me) Rent control did not solve the core problem, lack of new or well-maintained affordable housing. Many buildings were abandoned because the owners thought that a profit could no longer be attained from the buildings, thus dilapidation. (I don't see the relevance in this. Maybe it is my small town mentality, but I just can't believe that buildings would just be abandoned) These abandoned buildings would attract crime/looting and thus slums were created.

Slum clearance is to buyout an area, "clear it out," and construct new buildings. The problem with this was that planning fads and architectural fashions of the time emphasized open spaces, thus fewer affordable dwellings were created. Another problem, was that the time between the clearing and the new construction was sometimes years. ( So, slum clearance by definition could work, but the application of it actually reduced affordable housing.)

The third approach, low interest, long term mortages, was the only policy to significantly add to the supply of affordable housing. The problem is that it didnot directly benefit the lowest income classes. (I am not so sure of that, but ok.) The author also rips this apporach for causing suburban sprawl... again we differ on our opinions of this (author: damn traffic engineers!) (LOL).

The housing market has been booming thanks to low interest / long term mortages... BUT

... the house price bubble can possibly be deliberately maintained for years to come. But in both the U.S. and Canada, vacancies rates were rising in condos and apartment and house prices and rents were falling - not enough to solve the shortage of affordable housing for the poor, but signaling that suppl and demand are slowly converging. In any case, sooner or later the bubble must burst.... and could cause the densification of surburbs.

And now the author comes back to her "whipping boy," traffic engineers and city planners. She talks about the loss of beauty and boulevards along America's Main Streets. She understands that safety is the reason for the loss, but poses the question, "how do experts, teachers, and textbooks know that trees and other boulevard features are unsafe?" Well, I have a reponse:

Lawyers. Accidents happen. Start routes require (when possible/feasible) clear zone, space for an out of control vehicle to come to a rest without seriously injuring the occupants. Trees can cause the death or serious injury of a motorist even at city speeds. Transportation aganecies have to try to enforce clear zone practices to keep lawsuits at bay. If boulevards were as common as they, apparently, once were then when an accident happens and the family of the victim sues the transportation authority pays (even when another motorist is at fault, the trans. org. will pay a large portion of the bill). This waste of taxpayer money is a larger "community killer" than the loss of the boulevard. So, blame the lawyers and this "sue happy" society. And, yes, I despise lawyers! ;)

Dark Age Patterns

Early in the development of the human race, hundreds, perhaps thousands of unequal conflicts have occured between humans, followed by countless dark ages and extinctions suffered by cultural losers. Then the human race began to adopt a new economy: agriculture and pastoralism. The old hunting and gethering cultures were destined for unprecedented crisis. Hence, foraging societies were on the defensive against more powerful agrarian societies. With the emergence of agriculture, the world was never the same. Almost everywhere, the pristine economies and their cultures went down in defeat and memory lost.

Since the emergence of agriculture, agrarianism has dominated the world and the goals of states and empires, shaping their politics, military ambituions, institutions, organizational abilities, fears, and beliefs. Societies most successful at feeding their people from arable land, pastures, orchards, and gardens have been cultural winners and empire builders.

But that is no longer true. Now it is the turn of agrarianism to become a cultural loser. Though not everyone is not well fed, the need to eat no longer dictates that most people that most people must work directly with animal and plant production. (animal production... that is one way to put it ;) ) The change has been long and gradual, already the world displays a previously unimagineable redundancy of idled breadbaskets. For example, upstate New york was once the breadbasket of the northeastern U.S. but lost out to the midwestern and western prairies (Go SD!)

Would be empire builders have been the slowest to take in the great change and it's importance. The Germans, who initiated the twentieeth century world wars (wasn't it some serbian that started WW1 ;) ), justified the wars as driven by the need for Lebensraum, room to live.

Ingenuity, the new wealth that carries cultural dominance, has generated the industrial revolution, the scientific state of mind and its yields, the rise of democracy, the emergence of a middle class. In sum, human knowledge and skills, and opputurnities to use them effectively, have created modern, postagrarian societies.

Postagrarian states do not increase their wealth by aggrandizing territories and seizing lands and natural resources - as Japan and Germany learned after losing WW2 and subsequently prospering by other means. The key to postagrarian wealth is the complicated task of nurturing economic diversity, opporturnity, and peace without resort to oppression. Dark Ages and spirals of decline are in store for agrarian cultures that can't adapt themselves to generating wealth through human ingenuity, knowledge, and skills.

The jolts administered to unprepared agrarian entities by Western empires and thier joint organizations, such as the World Bank, the World Trade Org, and the International Monetary Fund, have already brought into being new Dark Ages in many African countries, including Cambodia and Burma. Cambodia and Burma were stable and prosperous as agrarian cultures and seemed to adapt well to French and British rule, respectively. Then they sank into post colonial horrors.

(so, a dark age does not have to encompass the entire globe.)

At a given time it is hard to tell whether forces of cultural life or death are in the ascendancy. Is suburban sprawl, with its murders of communities and wastes of land, time, and energy, a sign of decay? Or is rising interest in means of pvercoming sprawl a sign of vigor and adaptability in North American culture? Arguably, either could turn out to be true.

What would people of the future (through hindsight) advise us? "Let things grow. Don't let curently powerful governmentor commercial enterprises strangle new departures, or alternatively gobble them as soon as they show indications of being economic successes. Stop trying to cram too many eggs into too few baskets under the keeping of too few supermen (who don't actually exist except in our mythos)."
(Nice metaphors, huh? but the point is clear and I believe that a friend of mine would agree with it. Let me know if I am wrong ;) )

HOW CAN A CULTURE AVOID FALLING INTO A DARK AGE, WHEN IT APPEARS TO BE ITS DESTINY?

Japan avoided a colonial imposed dark age, when Commodore Perry showed up in 1853 demanding that trade be opened up with the west, by assimiliating western ways into their own. They took great care to cherish and nurutre their own cultural characteristics.

After all the hardships that they have faced at the hands of the English, Ireland has, by some miracle (of Irishing Up!), avoided falling into a dark age. The Irish, stubbornly (do they do anything differently?), refused to forget their identity... their culture. They kept their culture through song (and that is why iut is some of the best music!).

The pressing immediate task is for the society to be sufficiently self-aware to recognize the threat of accumulating cultural weaknesses and try to correct them to stabilize the cultural network. Vicious spirals have their (good twins) beneficent spirals - processes where each impovement lead to other imporvements and strenthening of a culture. Excellant eduacation strengthens excellent teaching and research by those educated. Responsive and responsible government encourages the corrective practices exerted by democracy, which in their turn strengthen good government and responsible citizenship.

We need to be careful, though. Societies that were great winners in the past are in special peril of failing to adapt successfully. Formerly vigourous cultures typically fall prey to arrogant self-deception. History has repeatedly demonstrated that empires seldom seem to retain sufficient cultural self awareness to prevent them from overreaching and overgrasping. They have neglected to recognize that the true power of a successful culture resides in its example.

We must be self-aware! (so buy and read the book Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs)

Great News!

First, my vidding muse has returned! Go on over to my website and check out my two new vids. Both take scenes from the CBS sitcom that I have ranted about numerous times already, How I Met Your Mother. The first puts scenes to the song A Pirate's Life For Me and the second, uses ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man.

Second, I have an interview (phone) next Tuesday with the SDDOT Bridge office. This would be my dream job, so wish me luck. Thanks.

FYI I have finished reading Dark Age Ahead. If I don't post a blog entry about it soon, come out to Yakima and smack me until I blog about it.

Three points with absolutely nothing in common!

• I recently commented about a French DRM bill, well, Apple has lashed back calling the bill "state sponsored piracy". Isn't that privateering? Also, how can Apple call their DRM Fairplay and yet it can not be played on mp3 players other than ipods? If this bill passes, call the leg store because Apple will need a leg to stand on!

• New Yorkers had a few problems catching a coyote! Apparently, their tranqulizers had little or no effect. Why were they bothering with tranquilizers? It is not like coyotes are endangered (or even threatened). Ranchers in SD (and non ranchers for that matter) shoot coyotes almost as often as prairie dogs without any qualms. Btw, any west or east coast Americans that want a prairie dog, just go to SD and take as many as you can!

• When obtaining a traffic model file from the WSDOT FTP site, I happened upon an informative round-a-bout pdf. I decided I needed to return to the ftp site (it is public domain) on my personal pc and obtain a copy of it. I have a pair of screenshots from a couple of pages to share with you. First of all, the differences between a modern round-a-bout and a traffic circle: And, secondly, locations of existing and proposed round-a-bouts in the state of Washington: I know for a fact that more roundabouts are planned now than when this pdf was created (March 2005).

Tomorrow is a Holiday!

Thanks to a GoDaddy.com commercial, I will not miss the holiday tomorrow! Tomorrow is National Puppy Day! Apparently it is an attempt to get people to visit their local humane society and adopt a puppy. I actually like this idea... a person can get a great dog from the humane society. My family's dog is a humane society mutt... and yes, I still consider him my dog despite 1300 miles separating us.

And don't forget National Dog Day on August 26.

Another good day!

I now have something to show for being nearly broke! I just received the title for my pickup from the credit union. Actually, saying I am broke is a bit of an exaggeration, but I can't splurge much for about 6 weeks. Paying a loan off two and a half years early does that to a person. ;)

In other news,

• The French National Assembly has passed a bill to out law closed DRMs.
• A London based firm, TidalStream, has developed a semi submersible turbine system to harvest energy of deep tidal currents. The company hopes to begin constructing such systems in the Pentland Firth (Northern Scotland) in five years.

it is a good day!

I recently blogged about recieving a promotion, well I recieved the official acknowledgement today! I have received a 5.1% raise... seems like an odd percentage for a raise, but it fits their tables so whatever ;)Sadly, when I finally get a job with the SDDOT, I could possible drop 8000 dollars off of my annual salary. It is worth it in my opinion though.

Oh yeah, more good news... I have an interview next Monday with the Local Programs office (SDDOT). Hopefully, I will have an interview setup with the bridge office within the next week.

Houses

I recently went for a drive through Yakima and ended up driving up a large hill on the northwest side of town. Lo and behold, I have found some of the largest and nicest (also most expensive) looking houses in town.
But the largest house up there truly shocked me. It took me five pictures stitched together to show the whole lot! My pickup is also there to show how large the house truly is. To the far left, beyond the utility pole, is what I believe is a guest house for the residence.

The individual pics of this montrosity of a house:

This house even dwarfs the new SD Governor Mansion:

China to Attack Taiwan in 25 Years!

Without a competent navy, China turns to the next best way to bring it's army to Taiwan! Build a bridge or tunnel! I was reading my Civil Engineering magazine today and in the news briefs section was an excerpt from the Wikinews.

Actually, the article is about a 242 billion dollar, 25 year plan to enlarge the Chinese freeway system. The plan includes a biridge or tunnel connecting mainland China to Taiwan, a distance of 100 miles. Either would be the longest structure (bridge or tunnel) in the world. China will have to find a way to deal with the frequent earthquakes and typhoons, but if succesful it will be a huge triumph for structural engineers. And an easy march for the Chinese Army ;)

242 billion dollars over 25 years may seem like alot, but the recent transportation law in the U.S., SAFETEA, is for 286.4 billion dollars over only six years!

I was also surprised to see a professional news source refer to a wiki site. I believe this is a coming of age for the world of wiki, that is if it hadn't already.

Irish Up - the origins

It is spreading... muhahaha! Actually the term cowboy up means to keep working hard no matter how tough things get. It is a play on the common characteristic/stereotype that cowboys are bluecollar, hardworkers. Well, I sort of created the term for Saint Patrick's Week.

Irish Up, or at least the way I am using it, is to enjoy good music, good atmosphere, good food, and good drink. There is no requirement to drink alcoholic beverages (I don't drink), but the "good music" must be from a celtic and/or irish band. For example, Gaelic Storm, Great Big Sea, or Natalie MacMaster.

Btw, I am disappointed in Yakima's Irish Pub. I tried to stop in there tonight, but there were too many people packed in there. Thus lowering the atmosphere. Plus they were not playing any music. It is a nice place to go and eat on most days and the decor of the building is enjoyable to look at (many irish posters and knicknacks). I need to add start a good irish pub to my list of deeds to complete in my life. A place that can accomodate crowds and a decent stage for live bands. Of course this would be in SD, where I could borrow some of the talented bands from the Twin Cities. But it is probably nothing more than a dream... oh well. I did just submit a definition of irish up to the urban dictionary, I'll let everyone know when it is apporved by the editors.

Somebody Irished Up!

Well, it looks like nearly everyone failed the assignment from Tuesday. Well, being a poor (I just paid off my pickup!) blogger, there is very little I can do to you. Not that I want to bother!

I started a shoutcast server last night to help the world Irish Up. After letting it run all day today, I got off work to find that somone had been listening for 4 hours... they continued to listen for another 2 hours before disconnecting! I did an ip search to at least figure out where this person(s) is located and discovered that the ip is from the Phoenix (Arizona, not Golden) area. All I have to say is that whoever this was they are irished up from now till August... then they need travel to Saint Paul, MN for the Minnesota Irish Fair! Also, they have scored an A+ on my assignment without even posting a comment to my blog!

I am eternally gratefull to the Washington state voters for passing an initiative last November to ban smoking in all public places (i.e. bars, restaurants). The only exception was to clubs, like the VFW or the American Legion, etc. Thanks to this new law, I can enjoy the local Irish Pub in Yakima!

Everyone Irish Up!

Promotion

Well, a few weeks ago I applied for a Transportation Engineer 2 position in my office. I did it more for a practice interview for any SDDOT interviews that I will entertain in the near future. As most of my loyal readers know, I am dedicated to returning to SD.

Well, I learned yesterday that I was one of the canidates chosen for promotion. I was quite shocked, since I have not even been employed for a whole year yet. I explained to my supervisor my desire to return to SD (with a job waiting for me) and that I had applications out. My curveball barely made him flinch. He matter of factly stated that the promotion would stand anyway. The only change would be that I would be placed in a different squad than initially planned. Actually, rather than being transferred to a new squad, my promotion keeps me in the same squad. This change is to place the "risk" (his words, not mine) of me leaving on smaller projects.

Why would they promote somone who does not intend to stay? The logic does make (some) sense: as a TE1, I was already wanting to leave, so a promotion acts as an attempt to "bribe" me to stay. It won't work, though. In the words of the Steve Miller Band, I'll "take the money and run" What it will do is make me work even harder (actually it shouldn't be difficult) to convince any offers from the SDDOT to wait until July for me; I will have spent 1 year with the WSDOT by then.

I am not sure what kind of raise I will receive. I haven't been given any kind of official letter yet, but I believe that it was hinted to be around 5%. Oddly enough, my TE1 salary was already at the 67th percintile of the TE1 salary range, the 28th percentile of theTE2 salary range.

All in all, apparently I am competent and well-liked by the WSDOT management!

The quality of the internet has just decreased!

Not long after I started this blog, I created a mission statement:

It is our business to authoritatively disseminate world-class information, seamlessly establish value-subtracted knowledge, and perform synergistic blog colloboration in order to contaminate the world wide web with our ramblings.

As can be seen, this statement basically says that my goal is to lower the quality of the internet (not that it needs help). I have also mentioned on occasion that I am a vidder. Well, I have found a website that takes flash vidding to an all time... low (qualitywise), but succeeds greatly at lowering the quality of the internet. And here it is.

Also, a few weeks ago Gaelic Storm offered a pair of free tickets to an upcoming concert for the best limerick submitted. I have decided to post the winning limerick here on my blog:

There once were 5 lads and a lass,
Playing tunes to make you shake your ass.
Travelin the land,
With Guiness in hand,
To you, Gaelic Storm, we raise a glass!

Now that is a good lymerick!

Now, your homework for tomorrow is to listen to some great irish/celtic music and report about it in the form of a comment on this blog entry. Exmples, include (but are not limited to) Gaelic Storm, Great Big Sea, Natalie MacMaster, and Flogging Molly. Another great resource is Cape Breton Live.

Blizzards, Tornadoes, Fires, Oh My!

The past weekend has been very busy for those living in the central portion of the United States. Blizzards, tornadoes, and grassfires have swept through the area:

• South Dakota was hit by a typical March blizzard, dumping any where from a foot (Western SD) to 6 inches (Eastern SD) of snow.
• Missouri, Illinois, [Edited to add] and Kansas [End Edit] recieved the worst of thunderstorms sweeping across the midwest, including a preliminary estimate of 110 tornadoes that touched down.
• Northern Texas is battling wildfires that have already consumed 1000 square miles.

Ah, I miss living in the central part of this continent, especially SD! I would say this is a short post... but I have seen shorter!

as per request: Top Evil Villains

I decided to fulfill one friend's request to restore order to the universe with a list of my top evil villains. You see, two of my friends and myself have recently posted our lists of "good do-ers." This has left the universe out of balance... without my list today, who knows what could happen ;)

I have chosen to take an unique approach to my list. Many lists like this will duplicate one another, I am trying to break the mold (I believe I have succeeded). Most of those listed below are not truly evil villains but they are evil and, in some cases, misguided.

5. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)

Barney is a womanizer... he enjoys single life and one night stands. Little is known about his employment... he calls the company he works for Barneycorp and mentions that it gets sued alot.

Ted: What are you doing here?
Barney: Just the Lord's work.
Ted: But you're Satan!

This quote is from when Ted sees Barney serving at a Soup kitchen on Thanksgiving... it is later revealed that Barney is serving community service for public urination. Also, Barney has a blog... and we know how evil those bloggers are ;)

4. Reese Wilkerson (Malcolm in the Middle)

Reese is not a typical teenage bully. He is much worse. Among his evil deeds, he has stolen money from his brother, Malcolm, and sprayed a fire extinguisher down malcolm's pants. He even committed an act so ridiculously evil that it could not be mentioned on cable television (and MitM airs on FOX!). I do know that said act involved evacuating some sort of facility, cats, and it happens in some third world countries all the time!

3. Scorpius (Farscape)

Scorpy is a half breed between sebaceans and skarrens. He is a captain in the Peacekeeper (sebaceans) military. He has spent most of his time either trying to develop wormhole weapons or chasing John Crichton around the Universe for the wormhole knowledge in Crichton's head. Scorpius's goal is to annilihate the flower loving skarrens.


2. Greg Stillson (The Dead Zone)

Greg Stillson is a self made man. He has risen from a door to door bible salesman to the recently elected Representative from Maine. His political aim appears to be set on the White House.
He is a mentally unstable politician who has taken many illegal steps to secure an election. Upon meeting with Johnny Smith, it became clear that he would become responsible for an apocalyptic event that Johnny has seen in his visions and is trying to prevent.

And my number one, top evil villain is... a 6 year old boy!

1. Anthony Fremont (The Twilight Zone, It's A Good Life)

Anthony is no ordinary little boy, he has many gifts. He can read minds, wish someone into the "cornfield," or turn a person into a grotesque walking horror. He holds the community of Peaksville, Ohio imprisoned. To protect themselves, the people of Peaksville must always smile and think happy thoughts. The monster known as Anthony also hates it when people sing aloud... he turned his own aunt mute for singing aloud.

Clumsy Love, does it get any better?

Friday night was the most amazing night of my life!.... ok, maybe not that amazing. I went to the Clumsy Lovers concert here in Yakima. The Clumsy Lovers are a... folk-bluegrass-celtic-rockish band from Vancouver, Canada and they were great (not as great as GS, but noone is perfect).
I must be drawn to great fiddlers, like Natalie MacMaster, and Andrea Lewis of Clumsy Lovers is no exception! She was great: stage presence and playing. Don't believe me? Check out this clip.
Again, I recommend everyone check out this band, they are great!

End Move

A number of weeks ago a friend of mine posted about his recent Settlers of Catan victory. Well, this morning (I love flex scheduling!) I managed to win a game by dropping 6 points in one turn! That's right 6 points! Early in the game I was slightly discouraged as the bandit was blocking some of my numbers... so I bought development cards in hopes of a common soldier. But after three development card purchases, I gained 3 victory points! I felt ok about my position in the game at that point. The leader had 6 and I was only two points back. Well, I eventually bought another development card and lo and behold: it was a rare monopoly! The boomstick of development cards! Three rounds after I drew the monopoly card, there was 12 clay out (including mine)... I took the opporturnity and "yoinked" all of them. I was then able to build a road, settlement, and another road.
The settlement brought me up to 5 points and the last road gained me Longest road (2 points). I was then at 7 points and just happened to have 3 victory points in my hand... GAME, PAT! I have to admit that the blue player knew I was stronger than I let on and did contiue to (at least tried to) bandit me throughout the whole game. I suppose a stack of 3 or 4 dev. cards is intimidating ;)

[Edited to Add] Here is another screenshot.

what about the pineapple?

I recently made so-called random comments on a couple of blogs. Well, those comments are part of my promotional scheme to spread awareness of a terrific CBS show called How I Met Your Mother. This show has proven to be my favorite comedy every week this winter.

The show is about a group of friends in NYC (now, the similarities to Friends ends here). Two of them, Marshal and Lily, are engaged while Ted is seeking his soul mate. Barney enjoys his single life and continually tries to get Ted to enjoy it too. Robin is Ted's ex-girlfriend (she remianed friends with him).

There are many memorable quotes from the show...

Barney: "Ha-ave you met Ted?"

This is Barney's method of finding a girl for Ted... He goes up to any girl in a bar (dragging Ted along) and asks the question as an icebreaker for Ted.

Doctor: All set. She says she'd like to see the knights of the poorly constructed round table?

Marshal and Ted pull a pair of swords from their wall and begin to "fight" for the apartment. Marshal ends up on the coffee table (that a flashback reveals is glued together not screwed), it breaks and he accidently stabs Lily as he falls.

Ted: Vomit free since '93!

Apparently, Ted hasn't vomitted since 1993!

Lily: You're playing hockey. With a basketball... and tennis rackets?
Marshall: It's BaskIceball, the greatest game ever. We invented it. it's Awesome!

Well, Marshall's family invented a sport... btw, he is from Minnesota.

Barney: [after Ted "suits up"] This is totally going in my blog!

Barney: You don't bring a date to a wedding, that's like taking a deer carcass on a hunting trip.

Lily: I wish we were ninjas!

A few self-explanatory quotes.

Robin: Have you met Ted?
Ted: I am the aforementioned Ted.
Girl: Cool, so what do you do around here?
Ted: Well... I... uh... I do nothing, absolutely nothing.

Robin fills in for Barney... and this conversation is just hilarious... I can see one of my friends saying the same thing as Ted, heck, I can see myself saying it!

More quotes

More Dumbed Down Taxes

The disconnection between public treasuries and local domestic needs drawing upon them does not exist within taxpayers' pockets or bank accounts. The same taxpayers supply money for all layers of government. Rather, the disconnection is purely administrative and governmental. It is a political artifact with the strength of bureaucratic tradition...

Dumbed-down use of taxes - and the dumbed-down use of powers the taxes make possible - imposes deterioation, and it is surprising how rapidly this can happen once it gets under way.

The author talks about the best solution is to separate the levels of government either more distinctly or permanently. She can only name two similar events that were settled peacefully in current times: Singapore separating from Malayasia and Czechoslovakia splitting into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In most countries, the separation would risk terroism and warfare.

She also covers (lightly) the misuse of foriegn aid money. Including poor locations for dams, destroying premier farmland and ancestral lands isn't always worth the electricity produced. Good intentions are not lacking; susidiarity and fiscal accountability are. Foreign aid failures lead to instability and terroism.

Dumbed Down Taxes

After the year 1000, the dark age took a turn for the better. European cities, led by Venice, began trading with each other and, through Venice, the Middle East and Asia. The cities developed by importing, creating, and exporting innovations. Early medieval cities were had many disadvantages, but they benefited from subsidiary and fiscal accountability.

• Subsidiary is the principle that government works best – most responsibly and responsively – when it is closest to the people it serves and the needs it addresses.
• Fiscal accountability is the principle that institutions collecting and disbursing taxes work most responsibly when they are transparent to those providing the money.

The cities of the Roman Empire has lost these advantages in the desperate years before the collapse, when the imperial treasury extorted from them as much as it could and disbursed the money for schemes and needs according to its own, frequently crazed, priorities.

“… both subsidiary and fiscal accountability of public money have almost disappeared from the modern world, as if a cycle is returning to the Roman imperium, than principles that renewed Western Culture long after Rome’s failure.”

“Today, over almost all the world, major taxes, including those most remunerative and most economically informative, like income taxes based on the ability to pay, or those directly reflecting economic expansion, like sales tax, are collected either by sovereign governments or by their surrogates, provincial governments.”

The chapter continues to talk about how city sources of revenue are frequently inadequate to needs and how “senior” (state, provincial, or federal) governments come to their aid with various grants.

I could continue to discuss this chapter further, but I FINALLY managed to rent a copy of P&P. So I am going to wrap this discussion up.

The problem that the author sees is that tax revenues are largely misused. For instance, a city receives a grant for a light rail system, but all they really need is additional funding (much less than the cost of the light rail) for existing transit systems. Everything falls back to fiscal accountability. If the government spends the tax revenue wisely, then lower (and fewer) taxes would be necessary.

Just call me SD

The other day at work, during my break, I was wandering (randomly, mind you) around the WSDOT campus (it was a nice afternoon, in the 50s) . One of my coworkers casually strolled up alongside side me. I immediately complained (jokingly) that he was wearing a jacket. I was slightly taken aback by his response.

"I am not as warm-blooded as you, South Dakota."

He casually called me "SD" in a conversation not 5 minutes later! So apparently I am now known as South Dakota (or SD for short) by my coworkers. Must be my many witty and sophisticated SD anecdotes!

Random Thoughts

• Andy calls SD the promised land... I say it is more like [cue german accent] the fatherland. [cease german accent]
  
• I recently referred to the urban dictionary for the definition of evil twin. It has been brought to my attention that said definition is prejudice. I would like to offer my sincerest apologies to anyone that was offended by it.
  

Kingdom of Heaven

I have found a movie quote that expains my opinion on the ongoing battle for Jerusalem. It is from the 2005 movie Kingdom of Heaven.

Balian of Ibelin:
[holds a speech to the people of Jerusalem]
It has fallen to us, to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy palaces lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy?
[pause]
The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulchre? Who has claim? No one has claim.
[raises his voice]
All have claim! We defend this city, not to protect these stones, but the people living within these walls.

When given an opportunity for surrender with terms, he accepts and leads the the people away. It is the people that matter without them there is nothing... enough said.

I also liked this next quote from the movie:

Hospitaller:
I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here [points to head] and here [points to heart] and by what you decide to do everyday, will make you a good man... or not.

I would recommend, to anyone that hasn't seen it, that they go out and rent it.

Warrior Women

It appears that hollywood has stolen a few ideas from The Ninjas of the Apocalypse, story by one of my friends. The picture below should speak for itself of the stolen idea(s). If it doesn't, then contact my friend and beg him for a copy of the story so that you can read it.
I just saw Ultraviolet today. I have to say that I do not recommend seeing it for the plot, but if you are in the mood for an action movie with an attractive female warrior then this movie is for you.

This got me thinking. I know, I know it is dangerous to do that, but sometimes danger s fun.

Hollywood seems to make many movies with the same basic principle: hot female warrior defeats many male soldiers. Well, I have deemed you worthy to see my list of favorite female warrior characters!

1. River Tam
River Tam is a character from the TV series Firefly and the movie Serenity. She is played by Summer Glau, who is able to do many of her stunts thanks to her years as a ballerina.
2. Leeloo
Is the fifth element, the supreme being in the scifi action/comedy The Fifth Element. She is played by Milla Jovovich.





3. Joan of Arc
Ah, the maid of Lorraine... the peasant girl... the teenaged girl that led an army against the English. One of only two French military leaders that is worth anything. There have been two Joan of Arc movies of late, Ms. Jovovich played Joan in a Hollywood movie, but my fav is Leelee Sobieski who played Joan in a TV movie. To the right is Sobieski and below is Jovovich.
4. Violet
And Violet from Ultraviolet has joined this list of mine.

Literature In The Evening (LitE)

History Repeats Itself and so does this blog!

A few years ago I read an Isaac Asimov novel titled. Nightfall. It is about a planet with mutliple suns that, on a typical day, does not have darkness. There are three scientists (and one journalist) that the book follows: an astronomer, archaelogist, and psychologist.

• The astonomers find an error in the long standing theorized orbit of their planet and they believe that the error is caused by a moon.
• The archaelogist found an ancient city that, when "pealed" back revealed that at a constant interval was burned down and reconstucted many times.
• The psychologist investigates an amusemnt park ride that uses darkness as part of its scary factor, but many riders go crazy from it. The people of this planet are not used to darkness.

As a person can conclude from my descriptions, the moon causes an eclipse that casts darkness upon the land. Bringing society down with it. Every 1000s of years (I don't recall the actual time interval), the entire civilization must be rebuilt.

I found the book to be very well written and interesting. The plot is captivating and the characters are intriguing. I have not given away every plot detail either; there are many aspects of the story that I am leaving out of my description ;)

As of late, I have began to wonder if Asimov wrote this book as a warning to the world that history does repeat itself and that another dark age is possible. Also, Asimov also wrote a historical (nonfiction) book on the dark ages (titled The Dark Ages). So, should we start making bets on when the new dark age sets in? What needs to be done to avoid it? Will people heed any warning we give them? I don't know yet, maybe I will have a better idea when I finish Dark Age Ahead.

Jobless in Seattle*

Well, actually Bellevue, WA. I have a friend from college that is living in Bellevue, WA and is currently seeking employment.

<== Rather important looking, wouldn't you say? No? I suppose one must earn respect and recognition; importance will "follow suit". No, he is not an engineer or scientist: he holds a MBA! No, SDSMT does not offer this type of toil... err degree. He transferred to USD after his third semester at SDSMT.

Well, this last December he graduated from USD with his MBA and relocated to the Seattle area to find gainful emplyoment. He has yet to obtain a job, but he did get an offer to become a secretary at Microsoft! Apparently, the MS personnel director (or whatever they call it) goofed and missed the fact that he had a MBA.

I do know someone in the vicinity that is looking for a crew. He is a bit rough around the edges. And he is an evil twin of another friend of mine. He is a bit hard to get in contact with, so just wander around the docks in Tacoma. Keep an eye out for this fella =====================>

All joking aside, if any of my readers, as few as you may be, know of any job opportunities for him, please leave a comment (with a method to contact you) on this blog entry. Thanks!

His resume:

Objective
To assume a position of responsibility in a capacity that provides opportunities for strategic decision-making, long-term planning, and organizational management

Profile
• MBA graduate trained with the latest executive management and organizational tools
• Executive experience as president of a sole proprietorship
• Goal-oriented individual with strong leadership capabilities
• Highly motivated, well organized, driven to succeed in a detail oriented environment
• Proven ability to build, lead, and coordinate multiple teams

Education
Master of Business Administration -- Dec. 2005
University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD
AACSB International Accredited
GPA 3.7 / 4.0
Focus on executive administration and strategic development

Bachelor of Business Administration -- Dec. 2004
University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD
AACSB International Accredited
GPA 3.4 / 4.0
Focus on economics, executive administration, strategic planning, and organizational theory
Professional Experience
President
Jun. 2003 to Jun. 2005
Alexander Gifts, Vermillion, SD
• Managed ALL aspects of this sole proprietorship
• Gift catalog company, marketed through personal selling, direct mail, and other methods
• Business built from the ground up, all help hired as independent contractors.

Class C Floor Operator
Jun. 2003 to Jan. 2005
Argosy Casino, Sioux City, IA
• Control responsibility of $70,000+ of cash and equivalents
• Responsibilities included game process supervision of multiple tables, payout verification, and the safety and security of patrons and employees

Order Verification, Fraud Prevention Lead
Nov. 2000 to Dec. 2002
Spiegel Group Teleservices, Rapid City, SD
• Protected customers and firm from third party fraud and/or theft
• Assisted state and federal law enforcement in criminal apprehension
• Provided direct customer service as well as case management to the firm
• Under my management, department had zero chargebacks
• Estimated company savings under my management is in excess of $150,000 per month

Honors & Awards
Tau Sigma Honor Society, USD – 2003
Academic Dean’s List, USD – 2002 to 2005
Employee of the Month, Spiegel Group Teleservices – 2001
Academic Dean’s List, SDSM&T – 2000
Technical Skills
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, FrontPage, and Outlook; exposure to Access, other tools easily learned
• Proficiency with basic accounting skills, including general finance processes and reporting; company standard reporting standards easily learned
• Exposure to SAP and other Enterprise Resource tools
• Exposure to Project Management processes and reporting systems; PMI/PMP Certification desired
• Experience in coding/ability to read programming languages such as C, C++, Pascal, COBOL, FORTRAN, HTML, XML, Java, and BASIC; Other functional and modular languages can be followed with minimal coaching
• Experience with digital logic, circuit layout, and other basic hardware configurations

*This post marks 21 STRAIGHT DAYS OF ENTRIES TO MY BLOG! HURRAHS ARE IN ORDER!

Everyone: HURRAH!

Dark Age Ahead: Science Abandoned (muhahaha!)

In North America, sicence is admired almost to the point of worship. It is easy to understand why. Science and its offspring science-based technology have lengthened and lightened the human life span. Science has enriched our aquaintance with our planet: revealed it's geological history, instucted us in the life the planet supports, cautioned us about its vulnerabilities and the protection we owe it, and clarified the interdependance of its parts.

So far, (first paragraph of the chapter, I agree with Jane Jacobs.

Science is also mistrusted by those who don't like its discoveries for religous, political, ethical, or even esthetic reasons. Some thoughtful people complain that science has erased enchantment from the world. They have a point. Miracles, magic, and other fascinating impossibilities are no longer much encountered except in movies. But in the light shed by the best science and scientists, everything is fascinating and the more so the more that is known of its reality.

Again I agree, but to a lesser degree. I firmly believe that there still is much mystery left in the world that can be explained by miracles. Or at least not explained by science. You only have to look towards the ocean or even space!

Science doesn't supply happiness, but neither does it lack. Science has cast up dangerous and cruel knowledge, which has been exploited for warfare and dictorial power, but so have cultures so little gifted with scientists that they either make do with imported weapons or rely on clubs, axes, and daggers. Scientific information about our mistakes - for instance, that deforestation invites mudslides and deserts, that overfishing depletes fish stocks - doesn't gurantee we will avoid such mistakes or correct them, but that is owing to failure to heed what science uncovers
Despite all of science's shortcomings as a source of perfection, it still remains that the wealth, well-being, and creative power of our culture... depend heavily on science and technology.

Well, I agree with the message portrayed here, that science/technology is important to our culture but it must be used properly. Otherwise, the consequences could be devastating.

The chapter goes on to talk about how science uses "precise and intellectual means" to "get at truths." The chapter continues into a discussion of the importance of the scientific method. It is difficult, if not impossible to disagree with the book here.

The chapter stongly emphasizes the importance of integrity to the scientific and engineering communities and

if a body of inquiry becomes disconnected from the scientific mind, (the author mixes the terms scientific method and scientific mind) that unfortunate segment of knowledge is no longer scientific.

This is saying that if a design, experiment, etc. is tainted by a lack of intergrity (or, in my opinion, a lack of competency) it is no longer valid for its intended purpose. I also find myself agreeing with this line of thought.

A MAJOR point of contention (I was so angry that I had trouble reading) between the author and I is formed when she makes claims against traffic engineers.

In what traffic engineers have chosen to do and have recommended, they have abandoned and betrayed science as it is understood. "Engineering" also has an opprobrious (1. Expressing contemptuous reproach; scornful or abusive 2. Bringing disgrace; shameful or infamous) connotation of manipulation without regard for truth, as in "engineering consensus"

After reading this I nearly leapt into my pickup and cruised up into Canada to beat her with the ugly stick. But I didn't. First of all, engineering is the application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends. Engineering consensus? I would relate this to a term I am familar with: engineer's judgment. An example of engineering judgement: used to deviate from any standard specs when the spec is prohibitive. For example, a highway curve may not meet the required minimum radius for the design speed. If the radius cannot be reasonably increased due to prohibitive surrounding area (i.e. wetlands) then mitigation occurs. In my example, a likely mitigation would be posting a lower speed around the curve. This is not an uncommon practice. Part of engineering is staying within a reasonable budget. The cost of environmental permits and right of way aquisitions can play a large role in deciding the fate of any project.

On to defend the honor of traffic engineers everywhere (kindof). The author whines about how new roads are built based upon where traffic engineers say the roads are necessary. She goes on to point out several reasons why roads are not necessary, including the current traffic is not congested and the roads will conflict with neighborhoods and parks. She also mentions examples of new roads that are not being utilized to full capacity.

I have several statements about traffic engineering for her:

1. Traffic projections are not exact. They are usually based upon either recent and expected population growth or current and future landuse zones. In other words, traffic engineering is to civil engineering as probability and statistics is to mathematics (LOL).
2. It is not uncommon for politics to get involved in civil engineering projects. Politicians many times have "pet projects" that they try to push through. I include politicians from the local (city and county) to the national (senators and reps.) level in this "categorizing." For instance, when highway bills are passed many times certain projects in states have "earmarked money" that must be spent on them.
3. Most roads are contructed for 20-year traffic volumes. Some roads and interchanges are even constructed to attract new industry and commerce to an area.
   

I am done ranting and roaring, so you can WAKE UP NOW! ;)