I used to look down on the month of February, being a short month and all and typically cold (and sometimes messy). Lately I’ve come to appreciate it because of the dramatic change that takes place during the month. We enter February in darkness and exit it with far more daylight than we started with. It’s the month with the most dramatic increase in daylight.

Oh, and its also the month of my dad’s birthday.

In what I consider to be a move as remarkable as China’s decision to deploy far from their home waters, Japan decided to send warships to patrol for piracy off the Somali coast. Japan’s constitution limits it’s military to strictly self-defensive measures. I think its clear Somali pirates pose no threat to the Japanese homeland, nor has any Japanese ship been taken by pirates as yet.

It will be very interesting to see what lines the Japanese navy are and aren’t willing to cross during this deployment.

I like to sing. I think I’m pretty good, too. Even so, I tend not to put others through my singing so I usually sing only when I’m alone.

Years ago I found that server rooms – with their noisy cooling fans – make a good venue for belting out songs. I was doing just that one day at a startup company when two of the women there totally busted me. Apparently my voice carried a bit farther than I thought!

At my new job I spend much of my time in the server rooms. These particular server rooms have sliding doors at each end of the aisle, providing even more white noise over the roar of the servers. When I’m in a good mood I can often be found working on a server while pretending I’m on stage.

Hey, the servers can’t complain.

I’m thinking of starting my own publishing company, specializing in books designed to give people the bare-bones information to keep computer systems running. The books would be a bit more complete than a HOWTO but favoring the day-to-day tasks over installation and configuration.

The target market is the poor schmuck who got stuck running Exchange (for instance) because the mail administrator got downsized. Poor Schmuck needs to know only the things that will keep Exchange up and running until someone with a clue can take over.

I think such a line of books might be successful in this kind of economy. If you’d like to write on a topic that might fit this mold, drop me an email and we’ll talk.

On my way home I picked up some takeout from a place in Cameron Village. Waiting for my turn to pay, I noticed a man holding the familiar MasterCard with the Cardinal photograph and “North Carolina” on it. It was an icon to the jobless in North Carolina: the unemployment insurance debit card.

“Hey, I used to have one of those,” I said to him, maybe looking to boost his spirits, or drum up camaraderie.

“Yeah,” he nodded, seeming a bit embarrassed. “The design industry isn’t doing so well these days . . .”

He trailed off, but it didn’t matter. I knew exactly how he felt.

“Good luck,” I offered as he turned to pick up his food, and he thanked me.

It’s tough out there and a lot of people are just barely hanging on.

Two years ago my shipmate Dave Bullock signed me up to Facebook. I took a look around and forgot about it until another shipmate, Matt Feath, hit me up again a few weeks ago. Now I’m hooked, and I’m finding people I haven’t crossed paths with in many, many years.

I’d long ago set up a LinkedIn profile but have begun drifting away from it. LinkedIn began to seem kind of static. I use Twitter from time to time, too. I like the immediacy it offers. I don’t do much SMS texting but I can see that it would be a great tool if I did.

Facebook, on the other hand, offers what LinkedIn and Twitter do all in one package – plus so much more. So much more, in fact, that it could easily become a Major Time Sink.

I once scoffed at the idea that Facebook could be worth $15 billion. I’m not scoffing any more.

I was thinking the other day that some enterprising 18-year-old busted for underage drinking may someday take his or her case to court and argue that legal age is not legal age if it doesn’t include the right to drink alcohol. I also I think he or she should prevail.

I don’t think its right to ask our young people to be considered an adult in matters of voting, criminal law, registering for the draft, and so forth but have other rights withheld.

You’re an adult or you’re not an adult. There should be no middle ground.

A few weeks ago I returned downtown for a CAC meeting. Parked near my meeting place was an official-looking Crown Victoria with a North Carolina license plate identifying the owner as a member of the Court of Appeals. I couldn’t help but notice this same car sported a high-end radar detector on the dashboard.

So much for respect for the law, eh?