Quotes of the Day

Have you ever noticed that an angry man can only get so far, until he reconciles how he thinks things ought to be with the way things are? - Don Henley, "My Thanksgiving"

The question was not why it had happened, but how to stop it. - Brandon Sanderson, "The Hero of Ages"

Go For It!

Here's a look at an unconventional high school football team. Thanks to Jon Wertheim for the story.

RIP Mary Travers

Peter, Paul & Mary were all about honesty and sweet harmonies in the service of social justice. I fondly remember my vinyl 45 of Puff the Magic Dragon, as well as many radio broadcasts of Blowin' in the Wind and Leaving on a Jet Plane.

There really aren't many musical groups that remained a going concern for nearly five decades. PP&M deserve our respect for their passion, their talent, and their perseverance.

RIP Myles Brand

As President of Indiana University, Myles Brand will be recalled most strongly as the man who fired Bob Knight. As President of the NCAA, SI.com said this about him:

The first former university president to run college sports' largest governing body, Brand worked to change the perception that wins supersede academics and earned accolades for his efforts.

Too bad those efforts didn't achieve a greater or more lasting effect.

RIP Patrick Swayze

He was a breathtaking dancer who lived life to the fullest, and as an actor, he had a couple of blockbusters in Dirty Dancing and Ghost. He deliberately pursued idiosyncratic roles, which likely robbed him of a bigger career. And he never quit his three pack-a-day cigarette habit, even while fighting the cancer that killed him.

You've got to admire a man who lives life on his own terms, even when you think he made the wrong choices.

My Life in Books Meme, A Response

Using only books you have read this year (2009), cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a book title.


Describe Yourself: The Complete Sherlock Holmes

How do you feel: Bone Crossed

Describe where you currently live: Titan

If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Dirty Secrets Club

Your favorite form of transport: A Midsummer's Night Dream

Your best friend is: Agent To The Stars

What's the weather like: Lightning

Favourite time of day: The Temporal Void

What is life to you: Just Another Judgment Day

Your fear: Turncoat

What is the best advice you have to give: Magic Bites, Magic Burns, and Magic Strikes

Thought for the Day: Daemons Are Forever

How I would like to die: MythOS

My soul's present condition: Gone Tomorrow


Care to have a go?

Via A Book A Day, Or The Year Of Reading Dangerously. Thanks, Fifecat!

A 9/11 Remembrance

Eight years ago, at almost this exact moment, one of my co-workers walked by the work pod I shared with a couple of other folks and told us that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. A bad and very unfortunate accident, I thought. A half-hour later, I knew, along with the whole world, just how wrong that assessment was. Two hours after that, both of the Twin Towers were piles of rubble and remains. Yes, a few walked out of the rubble alive, a very few. There have been far bloodier days in American history, but not involving civilians.

We've been at war ever since. Not with Iraq, nor Afghanistan. Most certainly not with Islam. No, with barbarians who have perverted a religion that has common roots with mine, one whose holy writ espouses peace.

Let's remember, in appropriate silence, those who fell. Let's give thanks for those who survived, and for those who labored to rescue the injured, then to identify the unknown. And let's fight the good fight, both to make peace with those who will live along with us and to end those who would destroy us, simply because we live free.

50 - 332: I Lost A Vote

The 2010 Greensboro Relay For Life Committee met last week to begin planning next year's event. The final item on our agenda was a proposal to change the time Relay is held from Friday overnight to Saturday from noon to midnight.

The ACS website has this to say about Relay: The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local high school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events up to 24 hours in length. And in 2006, a Texas Relayer said this.

You might say I have strong feelings concerning Relay as an overnight event.

Greensboro's 2010 committee, by a two-thirds majority, disagrees. I've spent most of the last week just plain pissed off over the issue, to the point that I discussed moving to some other community's Relay with my wife. Then, over my last two lunch breaks at work last week, I watched The Last Lecture again, and one of Randy Pausch's points really hit home.

Paraphrasing: The brick walls are there to make us show how much we want things.

I want Relay to succeed in Greensboro in 2010, with my help and participation. I still believe that the overnight symbolism is extremely important and should be imprinted on the psyche of every Relayer, but not as important as the cause.

I do intend to vote for the event to be held overnight in 2011 and beyond, but the issue is decided for this year.