The Prophecies of NostraSeamus

The other day a 3.5 magnitude earthquake..er…rocked suburban Maryland, just outside the city of Rockville. I can imagine that those affected by the tremor were shocked. Earthquakes (strong enough for humans to feel, anyway) don’t happen very often in these parts.

I remember my first experience with earthquakes and, looking back, I probably felt the same as those folks did in Montgomery County. I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but I know I was younger than ten years old, for we still lived on Colonial Street in Philadelphia. The quake, a wee one, occurred in the early morning hours I remember the noise more than the shaking. It sounded to me like a huge truck being driven down the middle of our row of houses.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

I’ve read that US companies (banks among them) are hoarding cash to the tune of 1.8 to 2.5 trillion dollars. The percentage of cash as it relates to a firm’s total assets is rising and the velocity of money (the number of times, for example, the same dollar changes hands) is also declining. (Note: Much like “sasquatch”, “minion” or “lugubrious”, “velocity of money” is one of my favorite words/phrases).
(more…)

Share on Facebook

On June 27th, 10 individuals belonging to a Russian sleeper cell were arrested in the Northeast. Less than two weeks later they are all on a plane to Vienna, where they will be swapped for four Russians accused of spying for the United States.

Something simply does not smell right here. These agents were tasked with recruiting spies within the United States and infiltrating policy making organizations within the U.S. government. I just cannot believe that in two weeks we gleaned every bit of information they had about their operations in this country and, more important, members of other sleeper cells or the names of U.S. citizens they recruited.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

I haven’t written anything here since March..almost four months ago. Every time I think “I really need to sit down and blog about something”, I find it hard to do so. Thinking about it just exacerbates the guilt I feel at not having written anything in so long. This, in turn, makes me feel kind of stupid. Why the hell should I feel guilty about not writing? The answer is simple: I’ve been given a talent I’ve sat on for the last forty years of my life. I should attempt to do something with it. Too many people have told me too many times how well I write.

Of course, there’s a lot I could blame for the inactivity. There are the constant demands of work. Our home the land on which it sits demand a lot of attention. I’ve grown quite fond of Zynga Poker since I joined Facebook last November.

But these are not reasons so much as excuses.

I started this blog as something to help me write on a regular basis. Over time, a (very) few people started reading it. I got a little feedback (good writing…too much politics) and began to fall into a trap which had me wondering what so and so would think if I wrote about thus and such. Quite ridiculous, really, getting puckered up over what an audience of maybe ten people think. But this has been my problem with writing my entire life.

“What will people think?”

I’ve read, from a bunch of different sources, that first drafts are always horrible. Whether you are a 46 year old who has spent a life wasting writing potential or Stephen King, first drafts are almost always unreadable. “What will people think?” of this first draft. Probably not much. And what about later? There will always be those who don’t think very highly of what I write.

My wife would probably say that my “Libra-ness” is to blame for this. I have a need to please everybody. I should do my best to turn from that Quixotic path. Whom I please is probably the last thing I should be thinking about when I sit down and write.

Share on Facebook

Whenever I think of Donovan McNabb, there is this image my mind conjures up. The date is December 30, 2000 and the then young, upstart Eagles are hosting the favored Tampa Bay Bucs and their ferocious defense in an NFC wild card game. It had snowed the night before and the air was frigid. The crowd was frenzied as the Eagles played their way to a 21-3 mauling of the shell shocked Bucs. There was a point in the game when the Eagles were at the Tampa Bay goal line. McNabb, a young football god, possessing a cannon for an arm and a set of legs that would leave the jocks of defenders scattered all over the gridirons of the NFL, walks up…swaggers up, really…to the line, looks into the teeth of that defense and smiles. That wide, joyful Donovan McNabb smile. At that point in time, that smile contained all the sunny possibility of double-digit wins per season, the humbling of hated rivals, personal football glory for McNabb himself and, of course, parades down Broad Street celebrating an ever-expanding trophy case filled with Lombardi’s. Looking at that confident smile on that day, you believed. You believed that, as an Eagles fan, your days wondering through the Stygian darkness of NFL purgatory were finally over.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

I don’t get too spun up about birthdays. They don’t make me feel old. Brian Westbrook being cut by the Eagles makes me feel old. When a guy like Mike Schmidt retires or a guy like Westbrook leaves, it’s a reminder of the years that have passed.
So today I’m bummed out for two reasons: I feel decrepit and BWest is an Eagle no more.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

And so today, the great minds of the Senate and House from both parties will come together with His Holiness to present their sides in the great health care reform debate. Call it the Blair House Project. I’ve got to say that after the election of Senator Scott Brown and President Obama’s statements that “He gets it, it’s about jobs”, the specter of health care reform rising from the legislative grave is indeed amazing. While reading over coffee this morning that Danny Williams, a premier in Canada (whose health care system is held as a shining example of what our system should be) traveled to the US to have heart work done because he can get better care here, I fervently hoped that today’s theater of the absurd will drive a stake through the heart of this vampire.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

I’m a DBA. That’s an acronym for Database Administrator. I tried getting them to call me GOD, Guardian Of Data, but the idea has been met with something less than warm enthusiasm.

I’m in the middle of my on call week. I and six of my comrades take turns once every seven weeks strapped to our Blackberries 24 x 7, to triage any email alerts that come in from our computer systems. My employer provides educational services to over 65,000 students and we have hundreds of servers in production, test and development environments. These machines do a lot of squawking. Ten percent of the time the squawking requires immediate intervention. The other 90 % of the alerts are along the lines of “I’ve got a momentary problem, but I’ll be OK in a minute or two.” No matter…every alert must be looked at and evaluated, whether it comes at 8:00 PM or 3:00 AM. We have fifteen minutes to evaluate the message and send out a status to the rest of the team.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

I first saw the words “redneck Jesus” on a NASCAR message board. The poster obviously meant it to demean Dale Earnhardt Jr. and, I suppose, rednecks in general. I work in an office all day, so the reddest my neck gets is mowing the lawn in the summer. There are a couple things I know about rednecks, though. First, this country was built by, and runs, on their strength. Second, infidels believe NASCAR fans are a bunch of rednecks. I guess that makes me a redneck, albeit an honorary one. I’ll wear that title proudly.
(more…)

Share on Facebook

When I started this blog, every now and then I’d post about my “Idiot of the Week”. I’ve never liked using the term “idiot” because calling someone like Eugene Robinson an idiot is to demean the ancient and noble profession of idiotry. So I’ve some up with a new epithet: Muttonhead. The pickings were very easy this week.

Behold intellectual giants Joy Behar and Eve Ensler:

(more…)

Share on Facebook