Really, I have a lot to say...

I keep meaning to blog, but life (and Facebook) always seem to creep in there somehow. Well, I'm feeling writy so here are some seemingly random thoughts, though they've been rolling around for some time.

So what do you think of when I say 9-11? FDNY? TSA? Al Queda? Airplanes and skyscrapers? Box cutters? Death, and fire? Undeclared war by non-state actors. The PATRIOT Act? Gitmo? The 20th hijacker? All the conspiracies? "Heroes"? Afghanistan?  How Bush squandered all of that by getting us involved in a useless war which killed more American people than the attacks in the first place even though the enemy wasn't really in that country, and there were no Ws of MD; the fucktard.

I don't think of any of those either. Every time the date rolls around, or when I see those digits on my clock, I only think of one thing.  That's my friend Walter's birthday.  I want you to know what a fine fellow he is.  Walter listened to pretty much all I had to say at work for about ten years.  He would hardly ever let me get away with sloppy thinking or hollow arguments.  His friendship and our conversations made me a better person, a better thinker, and a better promoter of my ideas (which are too numerous to count).  He and I were inseparable, until the day that I was released from employment there in Sunnyvale.  In a lot of ways, leaving there was really good for me, but in one way it was a real drag.  I no longer work with the man who taught me most of what I know about computers, critical thinking, and Occam's razor.  I miss spending time with my friend.

And he's not just a computer guru.  He's a great father and devoted husband.  (And I'm here to tell you that you don't get that way by just falling off of a log.)  He is a careful and thoughtful man, and an asset to all whose lives he touches.

We used to get together for lunch every first Friday after another friend of ours left there - for years we did this.  It was a way for me to mark time, and since he now works too far away, we just can't anymore.  I really miss those times.  I owe it to both of them to find a way to re-connect.  THAT is what 9-11 means to me.