A long day at work today ended where it began, with a software-controlled device I was testing no farther along in development than when I started. Stubborn system indicated a problem that should have been evident previously – the same routine was used with prior successful tests, but perhaps it was not flawed hardware or software, but the human at the controls??
Once home, I met a friend’s questions on connecting his new computer to a wireless router, with perhaps less-than-clear instructions.
An hour later I am at his home, diagnosing the obstinant wireless connection. A bowl of albondigas soup later, and the situation becomes clear. In minutes, the connection is made and my friend has joined the Wireless-N generation, Pretty good considering we are both relics of the IBM PC era!
Now I wonder if albondogas soup will cure what ails my work project?

One of my very best friends, Jose, is having a birthday today. In the ten or eleven years of our friendship, our christian faith, expressed as two brothers helping each other through discipleship has strengthen us, our families, work, and difficult times. I congratulate him on his example as a father to his college-age son and devoted daughter -with whom he has developed into quite amazing horse-people. As a husband and father, he sets an example of the hard-working, God-fearing and family-centered man. Feliz cumpleanos, mi amigo!

I am proud to have intelligent and discerning sons. Now that the youngest is in his last year of high school, I hope he has come to view education for what it is: a mile marker in life. In 2009, history is rewritten to expunge or filter events and cultural reality of time, to meet political and social conventions of today. Murder now, if committed by an islamic group, is an exercise in national defense, US citizenship is not defined by borders, and rule of law, and every historical event of the last thousand years or more is skewed to reflect whatever agenda of whatever social or national origin of the proponent. Afro-centric doctrine denegrates white society, Arab-centric ideas denegrates jewish and christian society, homosexual politics denegrate heterosexual society, anarchists and socialists denegrate capitalist society, and any number of “green-environment” proponents denegrate anyone who uses current technology today.

Where once I was very supportive of “getting a good education” studying and going on to a college, I no longer see this as something which can be provided by the state. The State only seeks docile acceptance of everything they espouse, in order to maintain the status quo.

I began counseling my teenagers years ago to question everything that was stated in the classroom. Read everything, analyze everything, and discern where the truth exists by filtering it all through the lens of experience. In the final analysis, there is probably a lot of virtue in following the life-learning achieved by Abraham Lincoln. Walk miles to obtain a book, do chores, observe Nature, gain wisdom from the common sense of people – linguists, engineers, teachers, merchants, farmers, diplomats, carpenters. And hopefully, when society collapses into the ruin that is coming, the Dark Ages the Sequel will have little pockets of intellect and sense, to recover more quickly than 10 centuries of the last.

I am quietly cheering a possible shift in mindset in the U.S. military. The military is quietly reading the seas and skies, tightening fiscal belts and filtering its ranks to find and keep “warriors”. The military has achieved all its recruiting goals, and like the Jif-choosing, choosy mothers, picks whom it wants now. Conditions in the country have probably fostered this, but one look at the re-enlistment rates – enlistees are now vetted through performance reviews prior to authorized to re-enlist – validates that there are still people who value the United States and the ideals the military holds.

I do not want the government to foul up my healthcare. In the past thirty years, I’ve experienced medical care as a college student, company-plan employee, military member, and on occasion, paid fully-out-of-pocket. I happen to appreciate that I can purchase healthcare and choose from the best care available. Especially since I have a recurring condition which requires hospitalization, I want to go to the best professionals and facilities. I still hold the socialized system – the military healthcare system – responsible for much of the issues I experienced. These were aggravated by the lack of individual care and advanced practicianers that are available in private care. Fifteen years ago in the military, I had appendicitis which went undiagnosed for several days. It subsequently ruptured and over the past fifteen years I have suffered digestive problems as a result. In a socialized system, everyone gets an Emergency waiting room experience, but without top-line care. Without incentive nor alternative source of care, it never was nor would be treated with the precision and advanced diagnosis as in private care.

When I was in my mid-Thirties, my appendix exploded. If I had been subject to the employer and healthcare that I n0w have, it might never have gotten that far. But I was in the Navy, and my supervisors at the time were generally an ignorant bunch. After 3 days, I did get my agony recognized, and while being shuttled off to the hospital, the appendix burst.
Over the last 15 years I have had recurrent bouts of what I affectionally call “vapor lock”, when I neglected to follow a careful diet, proper hydration, or just common sense in what I was eating. After the appendectomy, I developed bowel scar tissue or adhesions which periodically can seal the colon. Sometimes a person can have a hankering for dried fruit, popcorn, peanuts – and eating too much can result in a bellyache. Or, in my case, I get a obstructed. The Bible talks about the evils resulting from the lust of the eye as a spritual battle relieved by prayer and repentance. With a physical evil, there is still a lot of prayer, but a visit to the Emergency Room is the best cure. In the last seven or eight times, I have had an NG tube inserted through my nose and esophagus to relieve the pressure on the adhesion, which I can tell you makes me very sorry about lusting after food. I think often about the scene in the Dustin Hoffman movie, Marathon Man, where the Nazi dentist is torturing him with a dental drill. I imagine the terror of an NG tube.

It’s my birthday today, and it started with a crash-bang, HAPPY BIRTHDAY from all 3 of the boys at 6 AM. (I really got to lock that door!) There’s a lot to fret over these days, but I really don’t give a rip today. I’ve walked the dogs, visited with friends, opened some birthday cards and received a couple cigars to savor on this wonderful day.