Like Jennifer's, our ac is not working. This is bad when the highs for the next week are supposed to be 90ish. So far the only repair guy who called us back can't come until monday afternoon. So when their ad says they work weekends, that doesn't mean they can fit you in. Can we come stay with you? (You need only consider this request if you have good ac.)

Bush Seeks 'New Strategy' for American Forces

A new strategy is certainly needed.

We should be prepared to defend our national security within reason. Not all eventualities are cost effective to prepare against. And we have to decide how much international peace keeping, 'nation-building', and justice work we're going to do. Probably it needs to be scaled down and done more cooperatively with other nations, or at least with them paying their fair share of the bills.

We certainly owe military personnel good salaries, benefits, and housing. However, we should probably also reduce military personnel.

This reminds me of the article in the recent Wired about the Joint Forces Strike Fighter. It'd be nice to have, it's cool, but we probably shouldn't spend any more money on it. Let's skip ahead to the next generation, unmanned fighters. Our existing fighters can do the job until then.

We need to reduce weapons systems. We don't need the state of the art. It isn't cost effective. We're already a far superior military force to any in the world.

We certainly don't need a missle defense system that may not work. Again, it isn't cost effective. We could pay a lot of 1 billion $ ransoms and still have money left over.

Morale is a big concern and it should be improved. This could especially be done with clarified goals (along with the already mentioned financial improvements).

There you have it.

I think the thing Eric and I most have in common (at least that I know about so far) is hating Wal-Mart. How could I not know before that this site exists?

Eric's got some commentary about the stadium in Memphis. I've been thinking:

We in the US should do what Canadians usually do: no more public money for highest-level professional sports venues. If the owners are losing money, they need to pay their players less. That's the bottom line. As long as the market includes public money for stadia, the market will bear these salaries. Take out the public money and the market will readjust. That's what should happen.

Another point (and I'm shaky on the tax code here, so help me out if i need it): why do companies get to write off advertising? That why they can afford these luxury boxes that no one else can. And also the naming rights. The whole thing is getting obscene. I should just stop watching and following. We'll see...

Found the web 100 on rfinney's page. Look's interesting. However, it's got those annoying pop-under ads, so be warned.

Found my page on rfinney's page via my referrer logs. His page is sort of Robot Wisdom style (at least in my mind). Glad I made the cut.

How popular is your name? Mine is 1647th in the US. Pretty popular (via James via Tim).

Now I see why I like to read James. He and I grew up exactly alike:

How did I make it through adolescence and young manhood with my sensitivity intact? I wrote lots of poetry, most bad, some good. I saw a lot of serious films and read a lot of serious books, and talked seriously with my closest friends about them. I made a lot of girl friends (usually with the objective of removing that space between the words) who were able to help me hone my listening skills. And I kept a journal. Essential survival tactics. One has to train oneself to articulate feelings or else those feelings stop coming.

Okay, I'm back. Did you miss me? I know it's been a while. I just, frankly, ran out of gas. I was in Chicago, taking this class, running back to Iowa on the weekends, didn't have my own computer, etc. etc. etc. It was a good break from routine life, but now I'm ready for a little routine again.

Article on solar surfing technology.

Wholey Mackerel! i forgot to mention the warm goat cheese appetizer. That was, like, the whole reason we went there. Tasty.

Since I'm comitted to logging every bad thing about WalMart I come across, I give you Eric.

Well, Christine and I met John 13 for dinner and a good time was had by us (me and Christine. I will not presume to speak for John. He said he had a good time, but, hey, you've almost got to say that, right?). We went to Cafe28 and it was very yummy. I had the Cuban Pork with carmelied onions and rice and beans. It had that tangy sweet and vinegary marinade I'm coming to associate with Caribbean food.

Anyway, good conversation with John. He might say I dogged him on Libertarianism too early in the conversation, but I was really only trying to be funny.

John brought his camera and some of the pictures of me and Christine weren't goofy. I'll let you know when they pop up.

Sadly, Jennifer was unable to make it.

We dropped him off at his house afterwards, so we got to see the home of 13 Labs. John said some of his neighbors call it 'the hippy house', though I don't see why. Looked nice.

My wife, however, will not let us move to Chicago. I suppose she is right.

More on Chicago later, including our visit to the Art Institute.

Gratuitous link: we're staying and studying at North Park University, associated with our denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church..

Today's Word Spy word of the day is PowerPointlessness: "In a PowerPoint presentation, the fancy transitions, sounds, and other effects that have no discernible purpose, use, or benefit."

Funny (via Jason).

I suppose that another continuing series here is going to be what I would call "vitamins in the shampoo"; the nonsensical combination of unrelated features in a single product for no reason other than that it sounds good in advertising. Vitamin-fortified shampoo is certainly not harmful but it does no good, either. The ostensible purpose of it is to "nourish the cells which make up hair", but in fact those cells are dead. There's nothing to nourish.

Funny (from Steven).

Here's something interesting: I'm sitting in class and playing the Red Storm Rising scenario for Civilization. I've started twice as NATO. It would be interesting to start as the Warsaw Pact. But I can't bring myself to do it. Wonder if I'll feel the same way in the morning.

Oh yeah, I'm coming at you live from Chicago, IL. It's warmer here than I wanted it to be, but, hey, I'm not complaining, because I'm out of Sauna, I mean Tulsa. No great shakes today, but tomorrow night we're taking the El down to the Loop to go the Art Institute. Right on! Should I wear my Art Institue tshirt? We'll see.

This is kind of fun: the D&D Online Alignment Test (via Skot on MetaFilter (with funny comments). I came out Neutral Good. I'd be lawful good if the law were lawful, but it ain't.

Off to Chicago today. I should be able to log from there. Talk to you soon.

Remember when I was talking about 'magnanimous' and 'equanimous'? I hope so, because I can't find the entry. Anyway, the other end of the scale is pusillanimous. It just came to me the other day. It means 'small souled' or 'cowardly'.

The Boston Marriage. An article in Ms. Magazine describes the author's choice to live with a beloved friend rather than a sexual partner. The arrangement differs from a typical roommate situation in that the two people involved take care of each other and socialize together like a couple traditionally would, and are even considering raising a child together - yet they are heterosexual and have lovers that don't interfere with their partnership. For straight people that don't want to live alone forever but are disillusioned with marriage... could this be the social institution of the future? (via hazyjane on MetaFilter (including comments))

Interesting. Some of the comments point toward the kind of family a church is supposed to provide.

The AFI Top 100 Heart Pounding Movies (via caraig on MetaFilter). Not surprisingly, the public thought differently: their top 10. Raiders is probably my top pick.

Ugh. Got offered tickets today but had to turn them down to work. Rats.

"In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming."

I've been doing some research on HP Lovecraft and his Cthulu mythos. It's interesting. Some of his stories are out on the web, but there's some concern about copyright. I'll quote only a small section without the link, and you can look them up if you want to.

They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died. This was that cult, and the prisoners said it had always existed and always would exist, hidden in distant wastes and dark places all over the world until the time when the great priest Cthulhu, from his dark house in the mighty city of R'lyeh under the waters, should rise and bring the earth again beneath his sway. Some day he would call, when the stars were ready, and the secret cult would always be waiting to liberate him.

I really like the idea that truth and reality are so terrible that they cause insanity, that sanity is a crutch, our anthropic making-sense-of-the-world.

I started at Chaosium. They make 'The Call of Cthulu' role playing game.

I asked Nathan how seat belt laws, insurance, and the cost to society play out in his political and economic philosophy, and he graciously replied.

Back at the Open today. I wasn't planning on it, but my boss called and asked if we could have our weekly face2face meeting out there, since he had two tickets. What was I supposed to say?

We saw Ernie Ells and Tom Lehman tee off on hole 1 and saw Notah Begay and the Swedish guy with the funked out look practicing putting.

Well, I went to the Open yesterday. It was very hot! Still, it was cool to see what goes on. I'm don't play golf at all. I watch it a little and mostly follow Tiger's exploits from a distance.

We didn't seem him, by the way. Let's just get that out in the open.

We did follow Sergio Garcia on holes 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. It was okay. Also passed Nick Faldo.

The tickets I was given included admission to a corporate hospitality tent. It was air conditioned and featured all the food you can eat and all the drink you can, well, you know. They also had brownies and three different kinds of Haagen-Dasz bars. We availed ourselves coming and going.

It was cool to see, but I wouldn't have paid the 35$ myself, not to mention the 100$ for real rounds starting tomorrow.

My friend Mike said they had more people for the practice round on Monday than they had at the final the last time there was a major in town. Call it the Tiger Effect.

When I told the receptionist where I was going she said, 'Let me know if you see him.' You don't even have to say his name. The man is _the_ golf superstar.

Man my kids were crabby this morning. They cried for Momma and Daddy around 545. We settled them back down, but I don't think they went to sleep. We got them out of bed after 8. I ran from the house screaming (not really).

I just got tickets for the US Open today. Pretty cool, huh?

It's here in town this week. The rumors and celebrity sightings are flying. My friend's son saw Tiger Woods at Braum's (ice cream) last night. Someone else said Tiger and Michael Jordan rented out a sushi place for a private party last night.

The Sweaties: Cast your vote for sweatshop of the year. Must read (and laugh).