Tour of the USS Elliot (DD-967)

A few weeks ago I unearthed a videotape I made while I was a sailor aboard the USS Elliot (DD-967). Taken one night in 1991 while the ship was in port in San Diego, the tape was meant to give my parents a virtual tour of the ship.

The quality isn’t the best as I had owned a videocamera for all of 6 hours, but I still found the video to be a fun look into the past. Careful viewers will see what I looked like when I had a full head of hair and big, dorky glasses. I’m also not sure what’s up with the Kermit the Frog-style narration, but it is what it is.
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Downtown deer

One early spring morning this year I was walking the dog on State Street when we stumbled upon three deer across the street from us. The deer made a well-worn beeline to a hole in the fence of the St. Augustine’s campus and bounded into the woods. In July I had another morning sighting, with deer standing near the edge of our front yard.
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Joining the ranks of Roku owners

Roku player

Having long become enamored of the Roku player, we bought our first one this week: a Roku HD that a neighbor was selling. Once again, I am quite impressed by this little box. Roku gets mad props for designing a fantastic user interface. I firmly believe boxes like Roku’s are the future of television, where one will buy individual episodes of shows rather than subscribe to a channel, cable tier, or the like.

Now comes the question of channels. What are the other Roku owners watching out there? Which ones out of the available channels have the more entertaining shows?

Hate groups

Like many in Raleigh, I learned that a particular hate group from Kansas would be protesting Saturday at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards. I fell into the knee-jerk response of wanting to counter-protest until last night I had an epiphany. I was reminded of comedy genius Andy Kaufman’s pro-wrestling “career:” where Kaufman became the target of enraged wrestling fans when he duped them in a performance-art masterpiece.

The crowd did all the work. Kaufman just set them in motion.

A hate group like the one coming to town feeds off its opposition. If a hate group goads me into anger it’s because I let them. It’s a lesson I’ve been slow to learn, that no one can piss me off without my permission. If they make me angry, they win.

Rather than match their anger, I will peacefully wish them well. And I will choose another game to play.

N&O ad crosses ethical boundaries

Dubious full-page ad

Tucked into the front section of Tuesday’s News and Observer was an advertisement that disturbed me. Paid for by some outfit known as the World Reserve Monetary Exchange Inc., the ad ran full-size and was made to look like an actual news story, claiming Raleigh residents could get some sort of deal on sheets of two-dollar bills. It included a color photograph portraying serious-looking “guards” and used a newspaper-like typeface. Only a tiny, one-line disclaimer at the top of the page gave it away as a paid advertisement.
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Elizabeth Edwards

The Edwards family reunites at RDU Airport

Elizabeth Edwards lost her battle with cancer Tuesday. She was 61. As one of her friends remarked, it was fitting she died on Pearl Harbor Day, having grown up a Navy brat.

I got a chance to meet her during the 2004 Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign and she made quite an impression on me. Here’s what I wrote in my blog post from that day:

Last, but certainly not least was Elizabeth Edwards. This woman radiated warmth like you wouldn’t believe! She seemed genuinely pleased to meet me and bragged about her father’s 30 years of Navy service. Her sincere, upbeat personality just blew me away. I thought Edwards was electric, but he doesn’t hold a candle to his wife.

After they had made their way down the line of veterans, the campaign photographer had us all bunch up and get a picture. John and Elizabeth Edwards ran up to the group for the picture. Elizabeth stood just in front of me, so I thoughtfully put my hand on her shoulder. Hopefully, that shot will serve as proof I was actually there.

I tried tracking down that picture but have yet to find it. Maybe someday it will turn up.

Elizabeth was one of a kind. I’m glad I got a chance to meet her.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks

I’m not much impressed with the leaked diplomatic cables provided by Wikileaks and its director, Julian Assange. I’ve not seen in the press anything that strikes me as being particularly deserving of classification. I suppose it’s because the source of the documents is the State Department, which apparently gathers all of its intelligence at embassy cocktail parties.

Boooorrring. Even the Hee Haw gossip girls could do that.
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