Analysis

Analyze your blog… and by inference, your personality type. Here. The “instant analysis” sez this about EIP (and the analysis IS instant… so much so that it makes ya wonder: “How’d they DO that?”):

ESTP - The Doers

The active and play-ful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

And here’s a screen-shot of the graphic that accompanies the analysis:
I have my doubts, Gentle Reader… I have my doubts. Shorter: Wrong, Sparky.

―:☺:―

We’re currently in the midst of a pretty good cold snap, as noted elsewhere and below. I kinda like that because this is the time of year I get to drag various coats and jackets out of the closet and renew my acquaintance with ‘em… an acquaintance that goes back over 20 years in two cases and nearly that amount of time in one other.
 
Like most guys, I don’t own a lot of outer garments. As I matter of fact, I have five…which is probably a little bit more than most men. But two of those garments are relegated to storage; I wear three outer garments on a regular basis. Strangely enough… all three are military-issue items. Today was the first day of the winter season that I wore my favorite jacket… an M-65 field jacket. (Full disclosure: I actually have two field jackets, only one of which is still serviceable enough to wear in public. The other is really worn… ripped here, torn there, the Velcro is gone, and it has all sorts of grease stains and such on it. It’s worn as a work jacket… if it’s worn at all, given as how I don’t do much “work” these days.)
 
My daily-wear M-65 was issued to me in 1984, the year before I retired from the Air Force. I knew I was gonna go, my retirement papers were in and approved, and I wanted a new field jacket to last me into retirement, as my old one was looking a lil bit the worse for wear. So… I beat feet down to supply, requested a new field jacket, got it, signed the receipt, and was on my way, a Happy Troop if there ever was one. I’ve worn that jacket every winter since. You cannot beat the thing for utility, what with its four large cargo pockets, collar-concealed hood, a button-in polyfil lining that keeps you oh-so-toasty, and the fact it’s waterproof… provided you give it an annual spray-down with Scotchgard. And when it gets dirty? Just throw it in the wash. That’s it. The M-65 looks damned good, it’s utilitarian, and it’s low maintenance. What else is there?
 
(Me and my M-65 in Yellowstone, May of 2000. It was frickin’ cold that day… and I was on the bike, too. But I stayed warm.)
 
Well, it turns out there IS something else. The M-65 is casual. VERY casual. For more upscale occasions I wear my pea coat. (Don’t laugh… it’s true. And I’m weird, I’ll freely admit.) My pea coat is The Real Thing and not some sort of knock-off (one sees a tremendous amount of knock-offs advertised as “Navy Issue” or some other such blather. Most aren’t even close.) And how do I know my pea coat is real? Coz it used to belong to SN2 when he was on the E-side of the Navy house (Pea coats are only worn by enlisted sailors. Ossifers wear Bridge Coats [scroll down for pic]. I’m serious.). He gifted it to me the year he was commissioned… the culmination of literally years of me badgering him to “get me a pea coat!!1!!” And so he did.
 
I love this coat. It, too, is quite versatile, and being 100% heavy wool it’s also very warm… especially with the collar turned up. I’ve been wearing my pea coat for about 15 years now, assuming I’ve done the math correctly. From the looks of things I’ll probably get at least another 15 years out of it… maybe more. The thing simply doesn’t show wear at all.
(Pic: Me, Grandson Sean, and SN1 on San Francisco Bay… an appropriate milieu for a pea coat, no? c. 2001.)
 
Last, but not at ALL least… My A2 flight jacket is perfect for Spring/Fall weather and is the jacket you’ll see me in most frequently. My A2 is over 20 years old and was made by Cooper, a firm that’s out of business now but was the official supplier to the USAF, back when the Air Force re-authorized the A2 for wear in the 1980s. The A2 I own is made of goatskin and is the “older” design, which precedes newer gub’mint-issue items manufactured after 1987. You can still buy the older model here (from Cockpit USA (formerly Avirex LTD), the current manufacturer and supplier of the A2 to the Air Force). Or… if you prefer the current, updated model (which is visually identical to the original A2 but has internal pockets)… you can buy that here.
 
Digression: The Second Mrs. Pennington about had a cow (man!) when I told her I wanted this jacket in the way-back. She looked at the price and flipped out… being the frugal woman she was and probably still is… telling me I could get something “just as good” for about half the price at any six stores in Detroit. But that wasn’t the point, I countered… “this is an official Mil-Spec A2!” And so it went… back ‘n’ forth. I obviously won the battle (I lost the war, but let’s not go there) and I feel somewhat vindicated, too. The jacket has lasted lo these 20+ years and looks just as good as the day I bought it. Better, even, since it’s acquired that patina one sees in old but well-kept leather. Besides that… It’s Teh Quality, Gentle Reader.
(Further digression: TSMP and I had a “one hundred dollar rule,” meaning consultation was required prior to purchasing anything over that amount. That’s a really good rule to have in a relationship, btw. It stops a lot of arguments… not to mention regrettable impulse-buys… dead in their tracks.)

(Pic: Me wearing my A2… somewhere in the Wilds of New Mexico (which is shorthand for “I don’t remember”), c. 2004.) 
 
And those other two outer garments? One is a Yuppie-looking windbreaker with an oh-so-discreet EDS corporate logo embroidered on it. It’s nice but it’s not me. I wore that thing rarely… most often to casual corporate events back in the day where it was de rigueur to fly the flag. I don’t know why I keep it. Souvenir value, I suppose.

The other item is a Burberry trench coat, another relic from corporate days. It, too, is most versatile, warm (with the liner zipped in), good looking in a “Bond. James Bond” sort of way, and probably never will go out of style. I love that thing (as much as anyone can “love” an inanimate object), but it doesn’t quite go with the levis and tee shirt ensembles that are en vogue around here. But: I can’t bear to part with it and who knows? I may have to go to a funeral in a cold rain some day. And if that happens… I’m ready. 
 
Well. That was much ado about not much, eh?

Makin' the Rounds...

... a superb reality-check from a previously unknown-to-me comic, Louis CK (4:12):



The man makes some great points! I kinda-sorta disagree with him on the flying experience, though, what with me being "of an age" where I can remember when flying was a pleasurable experience. Flying was beyond pleasurable, actually... it was special, in every sense of the word. Which, of course, is largely a function of the cost of a plane ticket. Flying used to be expensive back in the day and, as might be expected, fewer people could afford to fly. But today? What we have is airborne Greyhound buses, with a clientele similar to what you'd find in any bus station 30 years ago. EVERYONE can afford to fly these days, with predictable results in the experience. I'll not go further, lest you begin to get the feeling I'm one of those people...snobs, in other words. (But yeah: I am... in a lot of respects.)

But wait! There IS more. Back then: you got food, such as it was. There was no charge for checking your bags (unless you had, say, six of 'em). Drinks were free, for the most part. Flights were relatively uncrowded. Stewardesses Flight attendants were frickin' GORGEOUS and the fodder for many a male fantasy, which sometimes... in VERY rare occasions... came true. Male flight attendants were unknown. And lastly... there wasn't any of that TSA bullsh!t. There. I'm done. So much for nostalgia.

(h/t for the vid: Blog-Bud Andy)

A Friday Re-run

From EIP's earlier days... a brief history of my whereabouts over the years.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Small Towns I've Known and (Sometimes) Loved

I’ve lived in a wide variety of places in my life, big and small. In America I’ve lived in big cities like the megalopolis of Los Angeles, sophisticated, moonbat-infested San Francisco, hot and humid Washington, D.C., and gritty, industrial Detroit. I’ve also lived in medium-sized cities like Oklahoma City and Rochester, NY. Internationally, I’ve lived in Tokyo, London, Paris, and Ankara, the capital of Turkey. I’ve also spent a year or longer in garden spots like Wakkanai, Japan, and Sinop, Turkey. When I say “lived,” I mean a minimum of at least a year, two years or more is better yet. It doesn’t count, in my book, to simply visit a place for a week or two, you have to live there to know it. Of all the big cities I’ve lived in, London is my favorite, by far. But that’s another story!

The place I live, Portales, is a small town. (I’ve written about Portales before; here’s the link to a city profile, and here’s a couple of pics.) I like small towns at this stage in life for a lot of reasons, chief among which are: no traffic, friendly people, low crime, and much less complexity in day-to-day living. There are drawbacks, to be sure. I’ve mentioned a few annoyances in the past, when I’ve compared living in Portales to, say, living in San Francisco. I don’t have a broadband internet connection (ed: but we do now! Yays!), there are precious few good restaurants, and I can’t get a decent cup of coffee anywhere NEAR Portales. My local shopping options are also severely constrained. Nearby Clovis (pop. 30K) provides more options than Portales, but they’re still limited. I have to drive over two hours to either Lubbock, TX or Albuquerque to get into “mainstream” America as we know and love it. But, all that said, I love living here, for the moment. Things can, and do, change. I may wake up tomorrow morning and decide to hit the road. It’s good to have options!

I’ve lived in a number of other small towns besides Portales, and I have the Air Force to thank for that. Air Force bases aren’t generally located near big cities, but they usually are close to medium-sized towns, at the least. My career was different than most, in that I was in the radar business for the greatest part of my 22 years in the Air Force, and that meant being stationed in some very small towns. Here are a few of the small places I enjoyed.

When I was stationed at Fortuna Air Station, North Dakota, I lived in the smallest of small towns: Westby, Montana. Current population figures for Westby, MT are 153 people; there were (supposedly) 250 people living in Westby when I was there in 1977-78. The first three months I was at Fortuna, I lived in neighboring (30 miles west) Plentywood, MT, which had probably less than the current reported population of 1,855 people. I could have lived in the town of Fortuna (pop. 31), about three miles away from the radar site. Or there was Crosby, about 25 miles east of Fortuna, which now has all of 1,067 souls, again, probably a lot less in 1977...or perhaps there were more. One of North Dakota’s biggest problems is out-migration. People don’t want to stay up there. Obviously, there aren’t a lot of people living up in the Great White North of the United States!

Westby was great. You could walk the whole town in 15 minutes. There was a grain elevator, one gas station, two bars, four churches, a small grocery store, and a combination beauty parlor-laundromat-City Hall. There was no cable TV; we got two TV stations out of Williston, ND, and radio out of Regina, Saskatchewan. The nearest McDonalds was either in Regina, or Minot, ND. We used to go to Minot to party, which is why I laugh at Air Force people when they go on about how bad being assigned to Minot was. All in all, I loved my time in Fortuna/Westby, but I don’t think I’d live there again. It’s just TOO cold, and I mean TOO cold!

And then there’s Boron, CA. Current population is listed as 2,025 people, but once again, there were probably a lot less people there in 1970. I spent a year in Boron, and this place is probably the least favorite of all my USAF assignments. Smack in the middle of the Mojave desert, the best thing I can say about Boron is there was wonderful dirt-bike riding to be had! I could literally push my bike out of my garage and be in open desert in less than a minute. The second-best thing about Boron is that it was less than three hours from Los Angeles, and four hours to the ancestral home of the First Mrs. Pennington. She and I spent every available moment AWAY from Boron as was humanly possible.

A much, much better small town is North Bend, OR, population 9,620 people. The city of North Bend and its twin, Coos Bay run together. Coos Bay has 15,374 people. Since the two cities run together you have to say the total population is about 25,000. This is on the very fringe of what I’d call a “small town.” North Bend was one of the best assignments I had in the Air Force. Living on the Oregon coast was very, very pleasant, all things considered. The weather is mild, the location is beautiful beyond belief, and the people were very friendly. I’d live there again.

Klamath Falls, OR , on the other hand, is east of the Cascades and has an arid, almost desert-like climate. K-Falls currently has 19,000 people. I was stationed there from 1971 until 1975. I’ve been back once, and once was enough. Nothing remarkable there.

And finally…there’s Lompoc, CA, with a current population of 46,000 people. The city (?) had more like 25,000 when I was stationed at Vandenberg AFB from 1964 until 1967. Both of my adult children were born at the VAFB hospital and the First Mrs. Pennington still lives in Lompoc. A nice, quiet little town back in the day. My kids tell me Lompoc has gang problems these days and is suffering from growth problems, e.g., housing cost inflation. I’ll always remember Lompoc fondly; I had some great times there!

So. Small towns. Love ‘em, or leave ‘em. I’ll love mine for a while longer, thank you!

Update, 01/13/2006, 2:30 p.m. I forgot Biloxi, MS. How could I forget Biloxi? Like all other Americans, my heart aches for Biloxi these days. This small town on the Gulf Coast is home to Keesler AFB and has suffered more than most from hurricanes. I knew Biloxi before and after hurricane Camille, having been to Keesler for training in 1963, 1967, 1972, and 1980. All told, I spent the better part of two years in Biloxi, if you aggregate the time I spent there on four PCS/TDY assignments.

I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Biloxi. I spent a good portion of the "wild" days of my youth in some of the best and worst dive bars in all of North America. I lolled on the beach. I played with my kids in various parks in and around Biloxi. I made the short trip from Biloxi to New Orleans more times than I can remember. I ate some of the best seafood I ever had in Biloxi and neighboring towns. Yea, I have fond, fond memories of Biloxi. And I wish the residents of this lovely town all the best in their efforts to rebuild their city and their lives.

I added the pics to accompany the post today... coz I didn't post all that many photos along with my earlier posts. We live and learn (how to blog). On another note... the "whereabouts" I mentioned in today's introductory sentence are all US-specific (obviously). Perhaps I'll do a similar post someday about the small towns I lived in overseas. Don't hold your breath, Gentle Reader.

Dirty Work... Second Try

Well… I’ve been wondering, ya know. I’ve asked the question from time to time and have never really gotten an answer. Why? Because there is no answer. Michael Kinsley, writing in the WaPo (“Let the Guy Smoke”):

Obama has never denied that he was a smoker for much of his adult life. He said as early as February 2007 that he had promised his wife he would quit in order to run for president. He also admitted as recently as this June -- when his presidential campaign was about three-quarters over -- that he hadn't done so. In May the Obama campaign released a carefully worded letter from his doctor, who wrote that Obama's "own history included intermittent cigarette smoking. He has quit this practice on several occasions and is currently using Nicorette gum with success." Obama has declined to amplify.

The instructions on Nicorette say to stop smoking before starting with the gum and to stop using the gum after 12 weeks. We know, because he has said as much, that Obama was still smoking the month after his doctor said he was using the gum. And even if he smoked his last cigarette on May 28, the day before his doctor said he was on gum therapy, the 12 weeks would have elapsed Aug. 20. Wouldn't you think that some reporter since then would have asked Obama whether the gum had worked? Yet no one seems to have asked.

“No one seems to have asked.” Dang, I may have heard that line before… somewhere. Ya think? This issue is a nit, to be sure, but it’s also symptomatic of the general lack of curiosity on the part of The Media where The One is concerned, innit? I’m also somewhat taken aback at Kinsley’s last word on this subject:

Obama's steely calm is now one of our country's major assets. If he needs an occasional cigarette to preserve it, let's hand him an ashtray, offer him a light and look the other way.

An Über-Lib offering apologies for the nasty habit, including a suggestion we just look the other way or even facilitate this deviant behavior? Well, now! Who’d a thunk it? No one gave ME that option back in the day when I still indulged. Nope… I had to go huddle in the doorway down on the street along with the rest of the degenerates to get my fix, all the while subjected to hard looks, glares, and the not-at-all-well-concealed opprobrium of passers by. One wonders if there will be ashtrays in the Oval Office or if Barack will have to step outside into the Rose Garden to quiet his Jones. Ditto for Air Force One, where I’m sure smoking is banned. Oh, well. We must be tolerant now, mustn’t we?

―:☺:―

Blown opportunity… That would be yesterday. I was up until the crack o’ dawn yesterday morning, going to bed somewhere around 0600 and staying that way until 1300 hrs. This sort of behavior always leaves me with something akin to a hangover, minus the throbbing pain. Nope… it’s just that left-of-center, out of sorts feeling that hangs on most of the day before we finally get back to what passes for “normal” here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington. So… why is this a blown opportunity, you ask? The weather, Gentle Reader… the weather. Yesterday was just flat frickin’ gorgeous. Bright sunshine, 72 degrees (at 1400 hrs, an hour after I woke up), and no wind. Perfect Happy Hour weather, in other words. I blew if off.

And I have regrets:

Today is NOT a nice day here on The High Plains of New Mexico. We will defer Happy Hour until sometime this weekend, as it were. More’s the pity.

―:☺:―

Finally… here’s some Steely Dan for ya. There’s no point at all to the Clintonista imagery, although it IS entertaining in a retro kinda way. Sorta. Nope… what we’re on about here is Dirty Work’s superb music and lyrics, as the song happens to be one of my all-time favorite Steely Dan tunes.

Good, innit? I'd tell ya why this song (ahem) strikes a lot of different chords with me... but I don't want to shatter any illusions you may hold about my...umm... moral values (and those of certain women in my past, as well). I leave you to wonder, Gentle Reader.

(You may ask what this "Second Try" is all about... I originally published this piece at 0942 hrs this morning. Blog-Bud Barry e-mailed me a few minutes ago to let me know the post was showing up in his RSS reader, but NOT in his browser. Sho 'nuff... IE couldn't see it, but all was well in FireFox. I cut and pasted the post into a NEW post, written in Blogger's "Compose" window, but the cut 'n' pasted bits didn't show up when I hit "publish." BOTH offending pieces have been removed... and I'm left looking a lil bit like the Verizon Guy... which is to say, wondering: "Can you see me NOW?")

Topical

We Get The Gub'mint We Deserve...

...and it makes me positively ill. Witness:

Sweet Jesus.

h/t: Lex.

This Just In... Literally

The Brown Truck of Happiness has come and gone... and one of my favorite ladies in all the world left me with yet another way to broaden my horizons. To wit:

And for those of you who may have noticed the rather cryptic comment exchange between Blog-Bud Mike and I about “Acids” in the Auto-industry post below… your explanation is in the second photo above. Further details are here, if’n you’re at all interested.
And now it’s time for Happy Hour! I believe we’ll begin with a “Liquid” and a 1554…

Update, 1540 hrs: Unaccustomed as I am to writing criticism… not to mention the fact that I don’t really speak “critic”… as in “hints of pistachio, with a light impact on the discerning palette” or some such drivel… I’ll attempt to give it a go. I had that Liquid and a 1554 on the verandah and it was over all too quickly. Primarily because the cigar was over right about the time I finished my first beer, and most of my regular smokes tend to last thru two beers, if not longer. The fact the Liquid went quickly wasn’t because the cigar was dry; on the contrary… the cigar was moist and eminently “smokable.” It just went quick. That said, the cigar was interesting. I use “interesting” advisedly, as most of us tend to use that word these days when we want to be polite and not call a spade a spade, most commonly in the sense that something… anything… might be piss-poor in our eyes but we don’t want to offend. Such is NOT the case here.
Nope… I enjoyed the Liquid. Here’s a review written by someone with more experience in the critic’s language:

Acid Liquid cigars are mild to medium bodied, Robusto-size cigars rolled inside a smooth-smoking Connecticut Shade wrapper. The smoke presents hints of cashew nuts, plus a virtual kaleidoscope of spices and botanicals. The cigar burns clean with a toasty, woody finish.

Another:

Acid has won my heart. The Acid liquid is apart of Acid's Red Line of cigars. The Cigar is short and fat. It is a mild to medium bodied cigar. It has a hint of cashew and other spices. This cigar had a minty taste and aroma. The spices appeared to be peppery and it had a nice draw. I really enjoyed this cigar. Way to go, Acid!

The last review is interesting, as it’s written by someone under the by-line of “Maduro Woman.” Which brings me to my next point… I see Acids (at least the two I’ve sampled) as a great introduction to the wide, wonderful world of cigars. They are most definitely different and most definitely unusual, as far as cigars go. Apropos of nothing… I detected a hint of patchouli in the Liquid, which isn’t an entirely BAD thing, Gentle Reader. I’ll also emphasize the word hint. The patchouli wasn’t overbearing… I sensed a hint of the aroma, and that’s all. And I like patchouli… the aroma brings back great and oh-so-stimulating memories, patchouli does. As it would to any (former) counter-culturist worth his or her salt, but we digress.
So. I’m taking the second (and perhaps more) beer inside El Casa Móvil De Pennington while enjoying a Kuba Kuba. It’s not my habit to smoke inside the house but I’ll make an exception in this case. I want to savor the aroma of the smoke, both directly and of a second-hand nature in the clouds of exhaled smoke that are wreathing around my head as I write. It’s a great good experience, Gentle Reader. I like the Kuba Kuba better than the Liquid, at first blush. That may change, but I think not. You’ll find some brief Kuba Kuba reviews here.
Bottom line: I’ll keep experimenting with the Acids, and I’ll keep a few of ‘em in the humidor, too. They’re pretty danged good.

Three Sure Signs Winter’s Fast Approaching

Bare trees.

Colder weather.

The appearance of the annual beard. Well, make that the biennial beard… coz I remained clean-shaven last year. And it was a goatee rather than a full-set beard the year before that… so perhaps the appropriate term is “biennial facial hair.” The beard may not last long this winter given all that damned gray light-blond hair. My best bearded days are far behind me… as in the days when my beard was red, red, red. Case in point:

Sigh. (SN1 on the left, SN2 on the right)

Something to Think About...

On letting the auto industry fail (approx four minutes):

Yeah... you could call it propaganda, given the source. But... there's truth herein, regardless of where the video was produced.

Baby Boom

This is surprising? “At Army Base, Stork Landed With the Airborne.” Excerpts:

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Joanne Chavonne saw pregnant women everywhere in town, shopping at Target for diapers or dining at a Mexican restaurant.

Then she heard that so many families were calling the medical clinic at nearby Fort Bragg for the results of pregnancy tests that the Army had to install an extra telephone line.

And finally, over the summer, an administrator told her that the hospital on base was overrun with women in labor, and was delivering nearly 300 babies a month. “I was shocked,” said Ms. Chavonne, whose husband, Anthony, is the mayor here. “That’s 10 a day.”

For the first time since the Gulf war, the entire 82nd Airborne division was deployed during the surge in 2007. Nearly 22,000 soldiers joyously reunited with their families when they began returning last October. The base is also host to 29,000 soldiers from other units, which all contributed to what by August was an estimated 50 percent surge in births at Womack Army Medical Center, the base hospital, compared with the previous year.

The community has turned this into a celebration. On Saturday, about 1,000 recent mothers and mothers-to-be gathered as guests of honor at Boots & Booties, billed as the largest military shower ever.

It’s been ever so and I suppose only the NYT would find this newsworthy… the phenomenon is common knowledge among military people. The article also reminds me of that ol’ joke we used to tell each other… ad nauseum… when we were deployed:

Q: You know what the second thing is I’m gonna do when I get home?

A: Put my B4 bag down.

Plus ça change…

"It's Bad You Know..."

Best reason I’ve heard for an auto industry bailout:

Pierre LeBrun mentioned during the Hot Stove on HNIC (ed: that’s Hockey Night In Canada for the uninitiated) tonight the Wings have had a few conversations with Zetterberg’s agent, The numbers being tossed around are 8-10 years and $7-8M a year.

The two parties have not found that “sweet-spot” or else a deal would have been announced.

Al Strachan chimed in with this- If General Motors goes bankrupt, and it could very well happen, the Wings would not survive in Detroit. The city would be a ghost town.

My tongue is only partly in my cheek, ya know. (a week-old item from Kukla’s Korner)

While we’re talking Wings… another lil item from KK:

This season- Johan Franzen- 11 games played, 8 goals, 4 game winning goals.

Last season, playoffs- 16 games played, 13 goals, 5 game winning goals.

Last 16 regular season games of 2007-08- 15 goals, 6 game winning goals.

Totals in that time period- 43 games, 36 goals, 15 game winning goals.

Most major hockey markets, he would be in super star status, in Detroit, still known as the Mule!

It ain’t the number of goals that’s notable (although that is impressive); it’s the number of game winning goals. Now that’s amazing.

―:☺:―

R.L.Burnside on the state of the economy… or the outcome of the election. Take your pick.

“It’s bad you know…” R.L. is bad in his own right. God, but I love the riffs… harp, organ, vocals, you name it… in this tune.

We Be Three Today

Baby it’s cold outside…

But it’s warm and toasty inside… and the coffee’s good, too!

―:☺:―

Today we celebrate three years of blogging mediocrity. 1,814 posts (not counting this one), an equal number of images (at the VERY least), half-baked opinions, and half-assed commentary on a wide range of subjects…most of which interest only me. Yet we continue.

Go figure.

(Image from FreeFoto.com)

―:☺:―

I’m having one of those petulant net-connection days wherein I can get to some sites just fine (The Times (UK), The Guardian (UK), memeorandum), can’t get others to load (The WaPo, CNET’S bandwidth monitor), and some load, albeit verrry slowly (The NYT). There’s no rhyme or reason to it at all… but it sure as Hell is frustrating! I suspect my ISP has domain name service (DNS) issues… as I’m getting “looking up/connecting to the.site.in.question” messages in FireFox’s status bar while the hour glass indicates we’re working… without result.

I just hate it when this happens… especially on the weekend… coz that means the problem will likely persist until sometime Monday morning. It’s always sumthin…

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: Helmet Hair, X2. SN3 and YrHmblScrb just outside El Casa Móvil De Pennington, July 2004.

Nail. Head.

Blog-Bud Jim sends this along via e-mail:

As always... click for larger.

Insomnia Sucks

-->Life is getting busier for SN1 these days. A recent e-mail exchange (sanitized, as far as addresses go):

From: (SN1).af.mil

To: (SN2)
Felicity
Natasha
Sean
Erma
TFMP

cc: (YrHmblScrb)

Date: Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 11:57 AM

Subject: FW: Interesting...

As dad pointed out…it is interesting. I’m on the initial investigation team…I’ve been at work for 16 hours today and am headed to the trailer to get some sleep.

I love you all!

Buck/Dad

Capt Ivan "Buck" Pennington

From: Buck Pennington [YrHmblScrb@His.E-Mail.Addy]
Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2008 10:24 AM (Ed: AOR-Time; sent at 12:24 AM MST)
To: Pennington, Ivan A Capt
Subject: Interesting...

From the AFA Daily Report:

Viper Burned: US Air Forces Central announced that an F-16 fighter deployed to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, caught fire Nov. 12 after its pilot aborted a takeoff around 5:40 a.m. local time. The pilot managed to get out of the aircraft on the ground, with no apparent injury, but the aircraft was destroyed in the fire. The Air Force planned to convene an accident investigation board.

I'll bet life's interesting for you right about now...

ily,
d
--
Be Well!
Buck
Exile in Portales

I’m pretty sure this is SN1’s third aircraft accident/incident investigation, but I’m not really keeping score in this space… it’s just something I’m aware of. SN1 is a graduate of a school the AF runs to train folks in the methods and procedures used to conduct these investigations, so I naturally assumed he just might be involved in this one. It turns out I was correct…
Photo credit: USAF photo from the Joint Base Balad web site.

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Our 15 seconds of fame, Blog Traffic Division:
The Seven-Day Moving Average graph (thin green line) looks like the python that ate the pig, don’t it? That traffic spike you see is a result of a hockey post I put up on November 3^rd. I had the great good luck to get noticed… and linked… by Greg Wyshynski (aka Puck Daddy at Yahoo! Sports) and the day’s traffic literally exploded. We’re back to normal now… toiling in obscurity as is our custom. Or fate. Whatever.
It was nice while it lasted (insert big ol’ grin here).

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Wanna see a COOL ad? Go to Cordura’s “Defend Your Base” for some interesting graphics and sounds… if you’re in to that military thang (it’s an ad for tee shirts). Don’t bother, otherwise.

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I’m suffering from insomnia yet again. I went to bed last evening at 2130 hrs and slept fairly well until 0030 hrs, at which time I began tossing and turning in an unsuccessful attempt to get back to sleep. I finally gave it up at 0200 hrs, rolled out, fired up the coffee pot and here I sit… Which kinda-sorta brings to mind the late and oh-so-lamented Dave Attell’s teevee show. You might remember Dave’s classic… “Insomniac” on Comedy Central. I sure do miss that show… but the web site survives!

Dave Attell suffers from insomnia, making him the true late night god. He roams the streets of our cities in search of a good time, heck, maybe you'll see him! Drunks and losers, Dwarves with limps, Flos and ho's and one-eyed pimps,down the alleyway they creep, they're all your friends when you can't sleep.

Come with me and you will see, a late-night-freak-show-Jubilee! Kick the Sandman in his sack; Stay up late - Insomniac!

Ah, well. Gone but certainly NOT forgotten.
I think I’ll go out for breakfast as soon as the rest of the world wakes up and then head over to Cannon Airplane Patch and get my annual flu shot. Big Day on tap, eh?

Of Little Import

A moonbat fantasy. A compendium of fantasies, actually… it’s the whole nine yards. I’ll hand it to ‘em: this parody is VERY good. The print edition had to be pretty slick if it was half as accurate in the “look and feel” department as the ersatz web site is. Even the real NYT took note. Refresh the page a couple of times when (if) you go and pay attention to the faux ads in the lower right column… they’re howlers. Unless you’re of the Leftish persuasion, of course. In which case… there’s nothing funny about ‘em at all… just truth, as you know would like it.

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Do you use SiteMeter? If so… do you remember the gnashing and thrashing when they cut over to the “new and improved” SiteMeter that WASN’T? Wanna have some input on their latest proposed updates? You can test drive mock-ups of various reports and provide feedback to the development team by taking their survey here (you’ll need your SiteMeter ID handy). I think I spent maybe 20 minutes taking the survey… and I’m happy to report the new stuff looks pretty good. Much better than the flaming pile o’ crap they tried to roll out last September. I could live with it.

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Today’s Pics… or Broadening Our Horizons, Part Deux. The pics above were taken just before I grabbed up all the important bits and hit the verandah for Happy Hour yesterday afternoon. The last pic is a close up of one of my favorite beer vessels... purloined from the quintessential dive bar... and the very act of drinking from it makes me think of many, many good times, Gentle Reader.

But we digress. Some time ago I said I wanted to try Budweiser’s new American Ale once it became available in this part o’ the world. Well… it’s here in P-Ville and a sixer of same resides in my fridge. Check that: four bottles remain in my fridge after yesterday’s Happy Hour. The verdict: it’s not bad. You’re an astute person, Gentle Reader, if you think “not bad” is damning American Ale with faint praise. American Ale earns a passing grade with me, but only just barely. The folks at Beer Advocate have a higher opinion of the brew (collectively and on average) than I do. Witness:

That’s a pretty high grade! I’d give the beer a grade of “C.” Average, in other words… nothing special and nothing to write home about, but most definitely better than run-of-the-mill Bud. (Ed: Nothing to write home about? So why are you writing?) The beer is lovely to look at (I love the red-copper color and the way it positively shines in strong light), has a great malty aroma, but lacks substance… at least as I define substance. Overall it seems a little watery on the palette, and I prefer stronger tasting ales. Trippel, 1554, and Fat Tire are in absolutely NO danger of being replaced as the Beers of Choice here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington.

While we're on the subject...

Cheers!

Pretty Cool

News you can use… from the NYT (“Google Uses Searches to Track Flu’s Spread”)…

SAN FRANCISCO — There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.

That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.

Tests of the new Web tool from Google.org, the company’s philanthropic unit, suggest that it may be able to detect regional outbreaks of the flu a week to 10 days before they are reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In early February, for example, the C.D.C. reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. But Google says its search data show a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released. Its new service at google.org/flutrends analyzes those searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that, ideally, will show where the flu is spreading.

There are caveats and discussions/explanations on related issues (e.g., how Google addresses privacy concerns) at the link, but overall? “Flutrends” is an imaginative and useful application of technology.

(Flu virus image from National Geographic.com... where there's more great flu-related photography.)