The squirrels have upped the ante in the war of control of the bird feeders. Yesterday, they destroyed my home bird feeder, chewing through three separate plastic straps to topple the already-plundered feeder. I whistled to myself when I saw those three straps on the ground next to the upside-down feeder, still hanging by its sole remaining strap.

The news from the work front isn’t much better. I drove up to see my feeder in its now-familiar place on the ground, only this time there was one suction cup still hanging from the window. It seems a heavy (or desperate) squirrel ripped the cup right off of its screw. Bastards!

Now I’m watching a constant stream of birds show up for a meal that isn’t available. They’ve been betrayed by the squirrels.

I’ve got to figure out some better countermeasures or the terrorists, er … the squirrels will win.

I’ve been quite impressed with my brother Jeff‘s BCS (Blog Championship Series) page. Way to go, Jeff, for once again furthering the art of blogging!

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day. My parents and grandparent, aunts and uncles are all in Ireland right now, enjoying a proper St. Patrick’s Day. I haven’t heard from them and it’s bumming me out. I’d love to be able to follow along with their adventures.

It’s cloudy and wet here, so it’s as if Ireland has come to me today.

From the Cold War Dirty Tricks Department: The Washington Post carried a story two weeks ago of how the CIA planted bugs in software bound for the Soviet Union which caused the detonation of the Trans-Siberian natural gas pipeline in 1982.

“In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds,” Reed writes.

“The result was the most monumental nonnuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space,” he recalls, adding that US satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982.

Sadly, the CIA project has become obsolete, now that the same thing can be accomplished with the “Commercial-Off-The-Shelf” software known as Microsoft Windows.

I’m scheduled to have my laparoscopic nissen fundoplication surgery next Thursday at UNC Hospitals (I was never good at fundoplication in math class). The surgery should fix my reflux issues once and for all, of which I’ve been dealing for almost ten years. No more drugs, yay!

I plan to take the following Friday off and be back to work (or at least working from home) after a weekend of rest. That’s why the laparoscopic part is so cool: tiny incisions make for a quick recovery.

Only drawback is I can’t eat steak for about a month. Your blog wants steak. 🙂

Having just discussed this in the office, it seems that some of my coworkers may have similar problems. It seems this stuff is much more common than I realized.

I like Duran Duran’s “Wedding Album” because it’s singer-friendly. Lots of catchy melodies to sing, lots of range. And it doesn’t hurt to have good, soaring guitar: the kind of guitar I call “sunset guitar,” because it seems meant to play on a windy cliff overlooking an ocean sunset.

Most people who know me probably don’t know my singing talent (especially the ones who’ve heard me! Ha ha!). I love to belt out songs when I’m alone: at home or in the car. I would go nuts if I never had a chance to sing.

I don’t sing much around people, though. I’m sure I’d annoy my wife if I didn’t shut up at home, so I save my performances for other times. Once I was working in the server room during my stint at Lastfoot. Thinking I was safely out of earshot, I began belting out some tune as I worked. I walked out of the room into a round of applause from coworkers apparently impressed with my performance.

I am pretty proud of my voice, in spite of my unwillingness to release it at work. One of my Unwritten New Years Resolutions is to get involved with some sort of singing activity, though I don’t see myself becoming Clay Aiken anytime soon. The thought of singing in a smoky bar after midnight doesn’t appeal to me (unless the crowd is rocking, that is). Maybe I could put some tracks down in my home studio to start with. I was thinking of cutting a CD of holiday songs around Christmas, though I never got around to it. Still think its a good idea.

And yet, I’m pissed at the music industry and what passes for radio nowadays. Little I hear really inspires me. The magic can only be found in other genres. World music like Latin, African, and Reggae music. Music from places not under the control of the evil corporations and their conspirators still has some creativity left.

In situations like this where I’m fed up with all that’s offered, my habit is to be driven to create my own. Who knows? You might log into mt.net to find a freely-downloadable song some day.

I’ve discovered this album eleven years after it came out and finding it to be surprisingly good.
—
Destroyed by MTV,
I hate to bite the hand that
feeds me so much information
The Pressure’s on the screen
to sell you things that you don’t need
it’s too much information for me
Continue reading →

I’m thinking of becoming a guest DJ at Radio Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett’s pirate-radio-like streaming Internet service. Here are the requirements:

If you would like to be a Radio Margaritaville guest DJ, here are the general guidelines: Your show should be one hour long (no longer) and the entire program (music and everything) must be burned to a single CD. You pick the music, you voice the show, and you fight off the groupies. If you’re up to the task, simply send us an e-mail when you’re ready. And good luck!

I suppose I will need a greater appreciation for music before I kick off something like this, since most of my music is either mass-produced or not quite fitting with the JB aura. Even so, I should be able to put together at least one hour of music, eh?
Continue reading →

Found this link which tells of a scary Broken Arrow incident at the Bangor Submarine Base in Washington. In November, an offloading team was removing a Trident ICBM from a nuclear submarine and sliced a nine-inch hole in the nosecone, just inches from the warhead. Needless to say, the CO, XO and weapons officer immediately got their walking papers.

The handling crew took a break after making the bird in tube #16 ready for lift, leaving the access ladder in place. The sailors returned and began the hoist. The missile was lifted into the ladder slicing a large hole in the nosecone. The lift was stopped a instant before warhead impact.

Tell me again why having nuclear weapons is worth all this trouble?

Bonus link: Read about how the USAF nearly nuked Goldsboro, NC with a hydrogen bomb back in 1961. Interesingly, I didn’t know the H-bomb is still there.

Another wonderful Ibiblio-hosted collection!