Tim McGraw - Live Like You Were Dying

Dad's cancer is back.

I'm afraid that I've been willful, and lived my life filled with anger. I went for years without speaking with him, for foolish, prideful reasons. There's a Country song for that, but it's a bitter sort of solace.

Dad beat it the first time, ten years ago. He beat it a second time, nine months ago. I hope he'll do it again. Tenacity saw him through then, and I hope that well hasn't run dry.

I'm also glad that my Christmas present is to fly out and visit him.

The words of Stephen Levine keep returning to me, a beacon marking the channel safe from the shoals of Foolish Pride:

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say?

And why are you waiting?

Words for all of us. I'm glad that I buried my foolish, foolish pride, and made that call. It won't erase the past, but it give us the present. An opportunity.

Live like you were dying, like every day were a gift. What would you do with it?



Live Like You Were Dying (Songwriter: Tim Nichols, Craig Wiseman)

He said: "I was in my early forties,
"With a lot of life before me,
"An' a moment came that stopped me on a dime.
"I spent most of the next days,
"Looking at the x-rays,
"An' talking 'bout the options an' talkin’ ‘bout sweet time."
I asked him when it sank in,
That this might really be the real end?
How’s it hit you when you get that kind of news?
Man whatcha do?

An' he said: "I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."

He said "I was finally the husband,
"That most the time I wasn’t.
"An' I became a friend a friend would like to have.
"And all of a sudden goin' fishin’,
"Wasn’t such an imposition,
"And I went three times that year I lost my Dad.
"Well, I finally read the Good Book,
"And I took a good long hard look,
"At what I'd do if I could do it all again,
"And then:

"I went sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."

Like tomorrow was a gift,
And you got eternity,
To think about what you’d do with it.
An' what did you do with it?
An' what can I do with it?
An' what would I do with it?

"Sky diving, I went rocky mountain climbing,
"I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu.
"And then I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
"And I watched Blue Eagle as it was flyin'."
An' he said: "Some day, I hope you get the chance,
"To live like you were dyin'."

"To live like you were dyin'."
"To live like you were dyin'."
"To live like you were dyin'."
"To live like you were dyin'."

Why are you waiting?

Howling at the moon

It's what comes out with the moon that's the problem.

January's always bitter
But Lord this one beats all
The wind ain't quit for weeks now
And the drifts are ten feet tall
I been all night drivin' heifers
Closer in to lower ground
Then I spent the mornin' thinkin'
'Bout the ones the wolves pulled down

Charlie Barton and his family
Stopped today to say goodbye
He said the bank was takin' over
The last few years were just too dry
And I promised that I'd visit
When they found a place in town
Then I spent a long time thinkin'
'Bout the ones the wolves pull down

Lord please shine a light of hope
On those of us who fall behind
And when we stumble in the snow
Could you help us up while there's still time

Well I don't mean to be complainin' Lord
You've always seen me through
And I know you got your reasons
For each and every thing you do
But tonight outside my window
There's a lonesome mournful sound
And I just can't keep from thinkin'
'Bout the ones the wolves pull down

Oh Lord keep me from bein'
The one the wolves pull down

Garth Brooks, Wolves.

All this decade, life has been speaking in its Outdoors Voice. It can stop anytime.

Forget the Christmas cookies

Home made cinnamon rolls are better.

A dream is a wish that your heart makes ...

To all Borepatch readers, a very merry Christmas.

And a double merry Christmas to Stan, from whom this is shamelessly stolen.

To our deployed troops: Merry Christmas, and God Bless

We may not have a Bob Hope, but we appreciate what you do for us.



Thank you for the sacrifices you make for us. Thank you for the sacrifices that your families make for us, particularly at this time of year. Come home safe, and soon, and victorious.

Hat tip: The Fat Guy.

Hey FAA, how about a nice big cup of chill out?

This man is my hero:

ARDMORE, OK -- The pilot who landed his homemade blimp near Interstate 35 Wednesday evening could be grounded by the FAA after it was discovered he hasn't fulfilled some vital requirements to take off. Austin Wright has more.

Marvin Polzien says he does not have a current pilot's license, nor does he have a valid medical certificate. While representatives with the FAA wouldn't speak on camera today, they did tell us both of those things are required to fly.

On Wednesday evening hundreds watched as a blimp piloted by a local man flip flopped across the sky over Ardmore.

Its pilot, 79-year-old Marvin Polzien, says he brought the blimp down near the freeway last night because a motor that helps steer the blimp failed.

How can you tell that a government agency is over staffed? Because they're staffed enough to send two agents chasing after a 79 year old inventor. Note to FAA: this man is not selling his blimp, so could you please point to the section of the Constitution that gives you jurisdiction?

No? Then kindly sit down and shut the heck up.

There's video ot the link.

I'm glad we're not traveling this Holiday season

Oh good grief:
I'd call them "morons", but that wouldn't be charitable. To actual morons.

I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

You want to watch it, don't you? Admit it ...

Via Tosh.0, one of the better finds of #1 Son.

The IT Helpdesk Strikes Back

I have to say, I laughed at this. Yes, I'm a nerd.

From the Fake Steve Jobs.

The view out the plane window

Some places - like Cape Canaveral - are more, err, dynamic.



The commentary is not so impressive, but the gentleman was no doubt taken by surprise at the event. If it had been me, y'all would have had to listen to a dissertation on Aluminum Oxide as a rocket propellant ...

Need a reason to support Gun Ownership?

How about six?


Here in New England, we take that part about the British pretty seriously. And you just know that those Zombies won't shoot themselves.

Nat King Cole - the Christmas Song

Guess who's making Big Money on Climate Change?

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These are the UN guys who are the authorities on Climate Change, the Hockey Stick, and all that.

And just how much is Dr. Pachauri making? A quarter million bucks. That we know of:

No one in the world exercised more influence on the events leading up to the Copenhagen conference on global warming than Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and mastermind of its latest report in 2007.

Although Dr Pachauri is often presented as a scientist (he was even once described by the BBC as “the world’s top climate scientist”), as a former railway engineer with a PhD in economics he has no qualifications in climate science at all.

What has also almost entirely escaped attention, however, is how Dr Pachauri has established an astonishing worldwide portfolio of business interests with bodies which have been investing billions of dollars in organisations dependent on the IPCC’s policy recommendations.

These outfits include banks, oil and energy companies and investment funds heavily involved in ‘carbon trading’ and ‘sustainable technologies’, which together make up the fastest-growing commodity market in the world, estimated soon to be worth trillions of dollars a year.

Today, in addition to his role as chairman of the IPCC, Dr Pachauri occupies more than a score of such posts, acting as director or adviser to many of the bodies which play a leading role in what has become known as the international ‘climate industry’

Big bucks to an unqualifed, well connected bureaucrat for "access". This is me, looking shocked.

Dr. Pachauri has issued a press release saying that the charges are baseless and that he may sue the Telegraph for libel. People in the climate science community are unimpressed at his response:

The release provides details on more than $250,000 in payments to TERI over the past three and a half years in exchange for Dr. Pachauri's services from companies with a direct financial stake in climate policy. I do not see how this information in any way clears up the issue. In fact, it raises more difficult questions for the IPCC and Dr. Pachauri, who based on this information is unambiguously in violation of conflict of interest policies of the WMO and UN, the parent bodies of the IPCC. This level of remuneration from parties interested in specific climate policy outcomes would clearly violate conflict of interest guidelines at most federal agencies with respect to service on science advisory panels (e.g., FDA has a threshold of $50,000 per year). The fact that the money goes to an organization that Dr. Pachauri directs rather than directly into his pocket is not relevant (to the FDA, WMO or UN).

If the Intellectual Left had any honesty left, they would string this guy up from a lamppost themselves. The world could use an honest Intellectual Left.

So much for "protecting the UK's national interest"

Remember how the UK Meterological Office turned down a Freedom of Information Act request for theCRU's climate data? Because they said that it would damage the UK's international relations?

Nevermind.

The UK Met Office has released a large tranche of station data, together with code.

Only last summer, the Met Office had turned down my FOI request for station data, saying that the provision of station data to me would threaten the course of UK international relations. Apparently, these excuses have somehow ceased to apply.

What's absolutely hilarious is that these cadres of the Intellectual Left are so firmly convinced that they're smarter than the Average Bear. It's simply astonishing the number of times you hear an explanation from one of these self-described Elite and think: That's it? That's the best they can do?

Seems it is.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

No? Well how about a filling to replace the one that just fell out?

I note that the Senate hasn't even passed the Obamacare™ bill, and the dentist is already getting me right in! Thanks, Senate! Boy, this is just like the Nobel Peace Prize - you don't even have to do anything, and the rainbows shine down on the Unicorns!

UPDATE 23 December 2009 12:22: Seems I need a crown. Must be a king or something.

The victims of Climate Change (Legislation)

Because people might die from the effects of climate change in the future, Governments are ensuring that people die today. Australian farmer Peter Spencer has entered his 30th day of a hunger strike against the Oz.Gov. Why? Their laws - enacted to comply with the Kyoto Treaty - prevent him from making a living on his own land.

The Australian government pledged to cut the amount of Carbon Dioxide produced in their country. Rather than take the politically unpopular approach of reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned by the energy and transport sectors (by far the biggest producers of CO₂), they've chosen to encourage "carbon sequestration" (the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere) by promoting the growth of forest.

By "promoting the growth of forest", I mean "prohibit landowners from cutting down any trees or brush". As a result, vast portions of Australia are returning to scrub, and farmers who once made their living by, well, farming are now destitute. You see, the Oz.Gov refuses to compensate them for the fact that their land is now worthless, because you can't farm it.



Mr. Spencer decided enough is enough. Ignored by the Oz.Gov and the courts, he's making a statement with his life and health. The Personal is Political, indeed. So far, the Oz.Gov is watching him die:

A spokesman for Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has warned hunger striking Monaro district grazier, Peter Spencer, will not succeed in changing government policy over compensation of farmers for land clearing restrictions.

The response means Mr Spencer (pictured), of “Saarahnlee”, who entered the 30th day of a hunger strike on a wind monitoring tower on his property on Tuesday, could become a self-elected martyr to his cause.

He has repeatedly vowed not to end the hunger strike until Mr Rudd agrees to pay himself and other farmers billions of dollars in compensation over land clearing restrictions and the role the restrictions have played in ensuring Australia met Kyoto Protocol carbon emission targets.

But Mr Rudd’s spokesman said: “The Government sets policy in the national interest.

...

But supporter of Mr Spencer and Cobar district grazier, Alastair McRobert, said the national interest would be “if the Commonwealth upheld the people’s constitution and paid farmers for the benefits (from the carbon) that have been stolen from them”.

Constitution, schmonstitution. The Ozzie PM is trying to pose for the Cameras in Copenhagen.

The Environmental Movement was once about cleaning up filthy rivers, and preventing people from dieing from smog attacks like the Great Smog of London. When they did so, they found great success in persuading the people to support their agenda. No more. As we've cleaned up the most egregious waste, the Environmental Movement has set their sights on bigger game. If some people now believe that the goal is depopulating the land, and reducing overall populations and standard of living, the professional environmentalists have nobody to blame but themselves. Their literature is filled with this sort of thing:

You shouldn't have a dog because of its carbon footprint.

A little malnutrition is good for the children. OK, it's not, but it's good for Mother Gaia.

Better no jobs than non-Green jobs.

For a movement founded in the innocence of youthful enthusiasm, the cycle is now complete. The once downy-cheeked crusaders are now The Man. Thirty years from now, we'll look back on Kevin Rudd much like we look back on Herbert Asquith, Prime Minister of England in 1914: out of his depth, but too wedded to his world view to save a generation from destruction.



Via Joanne Nova.

$99 Netbook

You really can't get much cheaper than this. As the company says, it's "Small, Slow, Sufficient":

The 7" Cherrypal was designed with developing countries in mind. The Africa is powered with an 400 MHz processor, 256 MB DDR / 2 GB NAND-flash and runs Linux (GMo) or Windows CE. Here are some more basics: Screen: 7 inch high-resolution TFT .(800 x 480 pixels) LAN:10/100M Ethernet Access WIFI: IEEE 802.11 b/g Ethernet RJ-45 Keyboard: QWERTY 86 keys Mouse&Touch pad:build-in touch panel, set two shortcut key,and support usb port mouse USB Port: USB 2.0 x 1 (aid external memory) USB 1.1 x 2 (aid keyboard & mouse only) External Memory : SD card , U-Disk , USB-HDD Card port: SD / MMC card slot (8GB) Battery: 7.4 V 1800Mha built in Lithium battery 1800MAH Last time:4 HRS Sound effect:build-in realtek sound effect chipset, Built in 2 x 0.5W Built in speaker 1 x microphone Weight:1.2kg Size: 213.5 x 141.8 x 30.8 mm

I'd hate WindowsCE (but you knew that). Linux would run just fine on this, though. If you wanted very inexpensive, portable browsing and light duty applications, this would do the trick. I'd think of this as an alternative to a pocket computer like an iPhone.

Via Slashdot.

"Green" tech breakthrough?

There are two major problems with "Green" electric generation technologies. They are more expensive (sometimes much more expensive) than alternatives, and they often don't work all the time.

The second one is the true deal killer. While higher cost is an efficiency issue, there are some places where these technologies would be extremely useful - mobile applications, for example, or off-the-grid locations where the current (polluting) alternatives are simply not a solution.

But if your electricity comes from solar, you can only turn your light on when the sun shines. Today you have to basically sell your electricity back to the power company (feed the Grid) during the day, so you can draw power at night. The power company hates this because it's terribly inefficient - a Potemkin Environmental Village, as it were.

Some boffins at the University of Illinois have come up with something that - if it works - would be a true game changer: a solid-state battery with ten times the energy density of Lithium-ion.

That battery incorporates a vast number of microscopic capacitors build from electrodes 10nm apart, separated by an insulator. According to Hubler, quantum effects, present because of nanometre scale of the capacitor, prevent the charge on one electrode jumping to the other when the electric field between the electrodes reaches a critical point.

This is probably a tipping point, if it's true. It would allow things like laptop computers that would run for a week between charges, or cell phones that would run for a month, or solar powered houses that don't connect to the Grid. It attacks the core problem with Green power technologies, which has never been generation, but rather storage.

Also keep a healthy dose of skepticism here. I remember hearing about solid state batteries as an Electrical Engineering student, a couple centuries ago back at State U. However, we might know pretty soon:

If all this is beginning to sound like the proverbial free lunch, it gets better. Hubler believes the manufacturing techniques used by the likes of Intel and AMD to make chips could be used to build these nanocapacitor arrays. A prototype could be built in a year, apparently, provided someone coughs up some cash to fund the research.

It's the 21st Century, and I still want my flying car. However, a week-long battery for my netbook would be pretty cool, too.

I did it all for you

Every day in the lead up to Christmas, I've been posting a song. Today I have a terrific modern day Carol from Kristyn Osborn of SheDAISY (with Marcus Hummon). It sadly does not have a video, but you can listen to it on iTunes. You can get all the lyrics here:

Shedaisy: I sold your Rolex
To buy that gold Versace dress
Rascal Flatts: I set free your whiny French poodle
So you could get your beauty rest

And I did it all for you
I did it all (I did it all) for you
This Christmas (This Christmas)
All your dreams (All your dreams)
Will come true

Rascal Flatts: I put your mother on a greyhound (Shedaisy: you did what?)
You always hoped she'd have the chance to see the world-now she can
Shedaisy: I torched your Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues (Rascal Flatts: No, no, no,no)
So I could be your only girl-and now I am

Heartwarming. I like the verse about selling his bass boat.

Here's wishing you a merry and conflict-free holiday season.

Nobody's life, liberty, or property is safe when the Legislature is in session.

Even in New Hampshire:

They tried and were unsuccessful in early 2008 to enact this gun ban through lawful legislative channels. So, now, in the spirit of open and transparent government (aka: Hopenchange) they've decided to pack a committee full of freedom-hating statists and ram it through when no one was paying attention, and with no public notice or legislative hearings.

Let me offer the following advice to the New Hampshire Legislature:

Once she empties her magazine into that guy, she'll sic her dog on him. Don't be that guy.

No need to thank me, it's all part of the service.