Random Reaction

First of all, I really do like the Palm Pre overall.  It is an awesome phone with a lot of great features.  It is fast, and syncs up pretty well with GMail.  But it advertises that it syncs with Outlook, which it apparently only does if you have an Exchange server set up.  Well, that is fine for business users, who are apparently the target of that bit of propaganda.  But it does nothing for those of us who just use Outlook without Exchange.  THAT requires a separate piece of software ($$ is the only kind I have found) to sync up your information with GMail/Google, which then syncs back with the Pre.  Not very elegant, and Google doesn't handle things like Notes and Tasks all that well.  And speaking of Tasks, the Pre reminds you of them, but there is no way to snooze the tasks; they just sit there until they are either dismissed or done.  And they get added to your Google Calendar, which is annoying if you share it with anyone.  There needs to be a bit more control over how things

I have been wanting to write about this for a while, but the concept didn't seem fully formed. But sometimes writing about it can help to more fully form a concept. I am no longer going to assume that I am going to come back to a post, because that has never happened. What I want to write about is the Republican party, which I think is basically the Party of Me. As in, I've got mine, so don't bother Me. I've got my money, so don't bother Me. I've got my health care, so don't bother Me. It really does boil down to the question: "Do you have ANY empathy for your fellow man?" Not your friends of course, but people that you don't know. Do you give a crap about the other people in the world, or not? Are you willing to pay a little extra in taxes so that the government can help take care of people who can't take care of themselves? It amazes me how much mileage Reagan got out of his "welfare queens driving Cadillacs" meme.

On a day back in February I felt inordinately happy, and I am not exactly sure why. I mean, most of the pieces of my life are in pretty good shape: healthy, loving wife and kids, some financial security, a job with meaning, friends who care, etc. But I am not a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. I am more of an even-keeled person who tends to worry more about what could go wrong rather than what is going right. So it was with some surprise that I found myself feeling this way yesterday. It wasn't necessarily and everything-going-my-way type of day, but things did go well overall. I think part of it was a somewhat silly (as in shallow) looking forward to the Duke-UNC game that I was going to watch that night (unfortunately Duke lost to a very talented UNC squad). I looked forward to relaxing and having a beer and wings and watching the game. Pretty normal day at work, went to kung fu, which as has been the case for a number of weeks now, was not able to fully participate in because

The sun is high in the cloudless sky, the temperature is in the 90's and so is the humidity.  It is surprisingly still in spite of the immediate proximity of the South Carolina beach and its unfulfilled promise of a cooling breeze.  I've wrapped my light-colored shirt around my head like some sort of floppy turban to try to absorb sweat and shield the sun.  It doesn't do much good.  I look over at the bales of dried pine straw that I still have to break up and spread on my parents' yard. My cousin is helping me, but I know I'll be doing my fair share of  breaking open and spreading the bales of sharp, sticky needles.  I've managed to get the headphones of my Sony Walkman to sit under the shirt, and have the Walkman itself clipped to my shorts.  This is a one of the original cassette "Walkmen," loaded with the second cassette of the double cassette "album" called Reckoning by the Grateful Dead.  It became one of my favorite albums that summer

I just watched President Obama address the Department of Interior employees on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the Department.  Although it seemed at points a routine thing for him, which it of course is, he also was very clear that he appreciated the work that we do here, and not just because we protect the national parks, which was Bush's idea of environmental protection.  But there was one point when it was clear to me that there was some serious fire in his eyes, and it was when he declared that the supposed choice between environmental protection and economic health was a false one.  Although that is a mainstream idea in the environmental community and most progressive quarters, it was encouraging to hear the president say it, and really mean it.  I have talked about how it is a refreshing change to have a new "boss" to work for, but this speech made it a bit more real.  He was also dead serious when he said that we should be looking for ways to improve the