Coed nudity

Now that I have your attention, here is the latest on the subjects.

Terry Schaivo died. I suggest making a living will and discussing it with your family. Looks like that would have saved mucho grief. The Pope appears to be hella sick. He will probably die soon. I hope HE has a living will. The fact that these people are really famous allows us to see their suffering, sometimes live on tee vee. That doesn't mean that the grief their loved ones feel is any larger or more valid. Your loved ones will hurt when you die too. Make it a little easier on them. A will (both kinds) is a good thing.

Apparently Iraqis still haven't formed a government, even 2 months after elections. Thing are slowly getting better I suppose, but they have a long row to hoe before it's all milk and honey. Meanwhile we are on the hook for huge efforts here. I sincerely hope that the Iraqis can transcend their tribal/ethnic/religious differences and create a functioning, durable, SECULAR government. I remain realistically skeptical.

Looks like the intelligence folks were flat wrong on the WMD thing. Funny that. I suppose the next time we get into this kinda situation we should throw in enough skepticism to keep us from having to change the fundamental reason we went to war after the fact. Just a suggestion.

Note from Sharon: Can we impeach Bush, 'cause he lied to us? When Clinton lied about his sex life, he got impeached, and no one even died. I figure we shouldn't do any less for Bush.

Tally Ho!

It's off to beautiful Mattoon Illinois next week on business. I generally don't like business travel. It has a tendency to be to places you would not have chosen for fun and the trips tend to be lonely.

In an effort to understand the locale that I am visiting, with a glass of port in easy reach, I checked out quite a bit of the web site content and the related sites. Mattoon has some 19,000 residents and the town dates back to the mid 1800's. Did you know that this is the site of the annual Bagelfest? Some of the related sites are, well, quaint. The fire department website is especially nifty.

Do you travel on business? Do you like to? What do you do to bring a touch of home with you?

Post your comments now, a fabulous prize goes to the first poster and the tenth as well!

Ten Commandments

I heard a great position on the display of the ten commandments by governments. The speaker was a evengelical preacher and he feels that such displays are blasphemy, and that it should terrify evangelicals that the government is attempting to co-opt their religion to get control over people. Here is a good Slate article on the general subject.

Indian burial mound size pile of cat litter

We had a few folks over fer the candy bunny holiday. We bbqd chickens, franks, and veggies and ate and drank ourselves silly. Best story around the table was the pile o' cat litter the size of an indian burial mound. See the pics at collierfam.com

Oooohh, new template!

Well, as you can see the template has been changed. I got tired of the blah black blackness of the "minima" template. This one is called rounders.

People who see my computers often know that I change my wallpaper frequently. At home the motif is generally paintings of nudes/semi-nudes. At work it is usually some large scale nature/technology view like an aerial view of a bridge or a spacecraft in space, or paintings by some well known painters like Matisse, Cezanne, or Bouguereau.

Here is my current home wallpaper:


Oh, and that profile pic is an old one, like 1985 or so!

News flash: Readers not posting

It has come to my attention that some of you readers are not posting comments due to fears of inadequacy in the wittiness department. Rest assured that all comments witty and non-witty are encouraged celebrated. Thanks for reading, even you bashful types.

I, Survivor

Spent the last two days with what seemed like 50 fourth graders, actually just 28, in the rain and mud escorting trudging them through the goldrush town of Columbia, then a night at a youth hostel, then the state capitol tour, then Sutter's Fort, then the Indian Museum, a little more Sutter's Fort, then the railroad museum in Sacramento. The bus driver George was really great. The sites were pretty neat. I especially liked the capitol. We almost got to meet the guvernator, but he was in Fresno. We did see his reception room. The kids seemed to like everything equally, but somewhat less than running around and talking too loudly in almost all circumstances. (though they were very well behaved at the capitol) There were two other dads and five moms along for the trip. Nice folks all. Glad to be back.

The hostel in Sacramento is an old mansion. Really cool architecture. The capitol building is a must see if you have political interests. Worth the trip alone. Sutter's Fort is pretty good, but definitely geared for school aged visitors. The adjacent Indian museum is small but full of artifacts. They make it pretty clear what the white man did to the natives when they arrived, and they don't pull punches. The railroad museum has about a dozen real locomotives and perhaps fifteen cars of various descriptions. My favorite engine is the one that is 1,051,800 pounds, and it is really huge and all black.

28 nine year olds! ... Am now having drinkie.