Sometimes It Is The Little Things

Our daughter was taking ballet last year. We would take her on Saturday mornings for the 30 minute sessions. For these classes, parents were forced to wait in the dressing rooms and couldn't view the practice. Once a semester, the parents were allowed into the dance studio for a demonstration.

For a variety of reasons, we withdrew our daughter from ballet and put her in an Irish dance class. While parents are allowed into the dance studio during practice, at the end of every class there is a somewhat formal process where the parents parade into the classroom and are then given a ten to fifteen minute demonstration of the moves rehearsed that day. Again, this happens every class session.

It was kind of hard for us to judge if our daughter was getting more out of Irish dance than ballet. Whenever we asked, it was hard to discern if our daughter was simply giving the answer she feels we wanted to hear or what she truly felt. But while taking her to the Irish dance class this week, I asked once more if she preferred ballet over Irish dance. And this time she responded, "I like Irish dance because my Dad is allowed to see me dance."

Until she said that, it never occurred to me that the tiny after class performances were important to her. I had always thought these were done for the benefit of the parents. It made me smile and drove home the point that children like the involvement of their parents.

Juan Williams and NPR

I've been keeping my head down the last couple of weeks because I'm mucho busy at work... with no end in sight. But while my other computer is overheating due to some performance benchmarks I'm running right now, I thought I'd comment on NPR's firing of Juan Williams.

Attention NPR: You guys are idiots. I've always thought you didn't want to venture out into the real world where your ideas and prejudices would be challenged. This just proves it.

Juan Williams has always been one of my favorite liberal pundits, because even though I quite frequently disagree with him I've always had the impression that he was being honest, forthright, and non-partisan.

By contrast, the overall coverage of NPR, while civil, has always been dishonest by ommission of facts, elements, and stories, less than forthright, and ever-so partisan.

The Thing About Gun Nerds

Last night the whole family was out in front of the house with the sidewalk chalk coloring up some Halloween sidewalk art. (To be truthful, my wife has all the artistic talent, my daughter fills in the color, and I chase my son as he runs off down the block.) Anyway, along comes a lady walking her dog. She stops to let my kids pet the dog and we all get to chatting. And then I notice she's wearing a DPMS 2009 Tri-Gun match shirt. It turns out she use to work for DPMS and just moved to the area to take a job with Beretta.

And that's when the chatting really started. We talked about shotguns and pistols and gun matches. I suggested she let the powers-that-be at Beretta know that people would love to have hi-cap mags for the Storm, etc... Anyway, we gabbed until it was well past dark and time for the kids to go to bed. I think she was genuinely surprised to run into another firearms enthusiast in liberal, anti-gun Falls Church. But thats the thing about gun nuts... there's a lot of genuine enthusiasm for the hobby and the associated sports.

Legal Aliens and Firearms Ownership

And here I was thinking only U.S. citizens could own guns in the United States. I was way wrong. Here is a good web page describing the federal laws and the relevant state laws. Note that the Commonwealth of Virginia will even issue Concealed Handgun Permits (CHPs) to green card holders.

Your Arms and Your Draw

Here's an excellent video about what to do with arms when drawing a handgun from a holster.



This guy also has many other videos, which are all good. However, this one seems to cover information I've not yet seen in any other of the many videos on how to draw a handgun from a holster.

"Phi Beta Cons"

Interesting note at NRO regarding the cost-benefit of a college education:

College Doesn’t Always Pay Off - By George Leef - Phi Beta Cons - National Review Online

Being in the IT industry, I've always thought that college for most people is a waste of time. I actually consider my college experience worthwhile, but only because I spent half of the time co-oping for IBM -- in other words, working in the real world. When I got my first job out of college, I remember co-workers of my same age who were much better skilled at the job, and they got that way because they had spent the last 4 years in the workforce and not in college. And that was the early 90's... I can only imagine it has gotten worse: the college kids know even less than the ones who didn't bother.

I currently manage a good number of software programmers, and was once urged to counsel our lead super star programmer into getting his BS. I counseled him alright. I told him he was already the super star and that college wasn't gonna teach him anything he couldn't learn on his own. Instead I told him to start his family while he was young and on good footing... no sense in putting that off, because raising a family is a young man's game.

That's not to say that I haven't met my fair share of shit-hot computer guys in the IT industry. I have, and many of them got their degrees in accounting or English literature or some unrelated field. Imagine how much more information technology knowledge they'd have if they had started down that road sooner.

1980's Style Concealed Carry

I remember the 80's. I just don't remember it like this.

Other than the fashion, there's a lot of one handed shooting even in stances where a two-handed grip would seem more natural.

I haven't watched most of it, but apparently a lot of Lenny Magill's stuff is available on YouTube under the search terms "Americas Ultimate Warrior".

Painful #2

Had my second Judo lesson last night. I was a good bit more sore this morning than from my first lesson. And during one of the lessons, my partner missed a step-in and managed to kick the crap out of my shin. Even with bare feet it hurt, and my wife pointed out that he actually cut me.

But I had more fun. Definitely very cool.

Elephants and Gorillas and Camels, Oh My!

Reading the Falls Church Times Man About Town column, George Southern takes two city councilwomen to task regarding the meaning of the idiom "elephant in the room". To be honest, until Mr. Southern pointed it out, I had thought it referred to a subject that needed discussing but nobody dared to mention. In fact, that's exactly how Wikipedia puts it. But Mr. Southern references the Oxford English Dictionary which alludes to the origin of this idiom in the New York Times as being about a subject that cannot be ignored.

Somehow this all seems to be connected to the expression about the 800 lb. Gorilla, which as I recall if you have an 800 lb. Gorilla of a subject in the room, it will be discussed. And don't get this confused with the Arab proverb about the camel's nose under the tent, which in modern discussion contexts always seems taken to mean "if we allow a discussion of an unpleasant topic even a little bit, we'll have to discuss it in its entirety." However based on this story, it would really seam to mean that the discussion of the topic will be so voluminous as to preclude other discussions.

Anyway, I guess it helps to know which agenda-denial expression is the correct one to use lest participants chase their tales and bloggers note it by flogging a dead horse.

PS. A list of animal idioms.

It All Changed For Me Five Years Ago

On this day five years ago, my life completely changed. Happy Birthday Little E. I cannot express in words the joy you have brought to me and your mother, my wife.

Search Keywords of the Day

"IETF 79 Gay"

Is there something I should know about my upcoming trip to Beijing?

Man, You Are Heavy!

I took my first Judo class tonight... which would be my first class in any martial art. I think I was the oldest first time student and perhaps the second oldest student overall. I'm a little sore, but that's ok.

One of the things we learned was how to use your hips to throw an opponent across your back. To learn it, we had to go through the motions slowly learning how to use legs and hips to get the opponent on our back and holding them there. My partner was having a bit of an issue getting me up on his back, and so the sensei came over to demonstrate.

He grabbed my arm, swiveled on his foot and hopped me up on his back leaving me suspended there for about 3 seconds. When he put me down, he grunted and then said, "Man, you are heavy!" My partner smirked.

Eco-Leftists Think It is Funny To Kill People Who Disagree With Them

The 10:10 project put out a promotional video encouraging people to try to cut back 10% of their carbon emissions. There's nothing wrong with that, but in the process they make comedy out of killing anybody who doesn't care to partake.



The whole idea is so despicable, that 10:10 has withdrawn the video.

Of course, there is the thuggish rhetoric of these eco-leftists and then there is reality. From Geek Warrior:

Out of 104k, I predict…. 10, thats right, 10 people might actually cut their carbon emissions 10%. The rest will talk a good game with their hippy friends and then still jump on a big ole jet to head to the beach for vacation.

That sounds about right to me.

What's Wrong with the Politicians in Illinois?

You gotta wonder about the political leaders from the state of Illinois, long considered one of the most corrupt states in the union. Fresh off of some stinging defeats to deny its citizens their civil rights accorded by the Second Amendment, they are now targetting... wait for it... the First Amendment:

From TechDirt: Illinois Mayor Claims Anonymous Bloggers No Different Than 9/11 Terrorists; Says Anonymity Is A First Amendment Challenge

Hard to believe these idiots are able to get into office, huh? What's wrong with the politician's in Illinois? Or is the better question, what's wrong with the electorate in Illinois that keeps putting these dumb asses in office?

Ohana

I really don't have much commentary on this weeks episode of Hawaii Five-O, Ohana, other than I thought it was better than the pilot. The story line just seemed better. The bit about the computer crypto skeleton key had me cringing though... I wish the betrayal of modern computer systems, networks, and vulnerabilities were more accurately portrayed. The gunny factor was good though, with the bandits spraying lead out of an FN P90, and the Five-O identifying it as 5.7x28 SS190 armor piercing rounds and showing a 5.7 spent casing.

I point this out because I still remember a Law & Order episode where a detective saw spent casing on the ground 10 feet away and said "They were shooting 9mm." Nobody has eyesight that good.

When Cooking

I'm curious, if you are cooking something and the recipe calls for 2/3 cup of water or thereabouts, if the measuring cup has only been used for water do you consider it a dirty dish? Or do you put it on a drying rack without washing it?

Busy

These past 2 weeks I've been busy, busy, busy at work. Most of it has been a lot of coding, in between the usual round of constant meetings I have to attend. And apparently there is only so much keyboard pounding I can do in a week.

In the meantime, go read Bitter's essay about pineapples grown in Massachusetts.