Good news, everyone!

Futurama is back!

Current mood: Tired

New, updated wish list

I've posted a few things here.

I typically am put off by people who publicize what they want. But I don't want that to be how this comes across. At my age, material possessions matter less and less, and I don't want anyone to feel obligated to give me a gift. A simple e-mail updating me on your life or night out with you would warm my heart just as much or more. My intention with the list is only to help make shopping (eww) as quick and painless as possible -- if that's something you feel you want to do. I often find that when Christmas rolls around, friends and family just come straight out and ask, "What do you want?", "What would you like?" or "What do you need?" I just wanted to put pen to paper, figuratively speaking of course, and brainstorm some ideas (inspired because someone recently asked me point-blank, "Be thinking about what you want"). So as the local cable company would say, "We're trying to make things a little easier."

Current mood: Productive
Current music: Fortress Around Your Heart (video) / Sting

Sign of the times, another in a series

"These early 'Sesame Street' episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child."

Current mood: Sad

Captivating reading

Airline disasters

Current mood: Sleepy

Bizarre animal news roundup

Thieving monkeys 'were even slapping women who try to chase them'

'I can quite confidently say it's probably not an orangutan'

Current mood: Full

Sugar high

Finally finished off the last of the leftover Halloween Kit Kats, Twixes and Reese's Cups. Yum. If I learned anything, it's that I really need to equip a trinket that will increase my resistance to milk chocolate.

Current mood: Satisfied

Hooch 2007

From Hooch 2007

The Head of the Chattahoochee is my rowing club's biggest event of the year. I just got back from Chattanooga last weekend. My boat typically does well, but this year was an off-year for us. I'll call it a "rebuilding year." The novice group -- rowing nomenclature for those who have less than a year's experience, in which they also can compete in a separate category so they don't have to race against people who have rowed for years -- made a terrific showing, however. There's hope for us yet. They're extremely fit and were working out upwards of six days a week leading up to the regatta. With the way they're going, I won't be surprised if they become the "A" boat and mine the "B."

Anyway, the weather up there was crisp and chilly -- just the way I like it. Which begs the question: Why the heck have I been in Florida for so long?

Current mood: Groggy
Current music: Reunion (video) / Erasure

Laugh

Horny pooch (safe for work)

Current mood: Silly

5 useless facts about me

Time for another list.

• Despite being somewhat of a technophile, I don't have a DVR, have yet to own one and have little interest in using one.
• I think marshmallows, Peeps and any food of that sort that's plastic and gooey are vile.
• I don't like feet, do not like to get my feet dirty and consequently don't like walking barefoot on grass or anything other than the tile floor of my home. I'll go ahead and throw my Japanese mom under the bus for this one.
• I'm not fond of and not good at swimming.
• For a short while, I collected X-Men comics. I still have them in a closet somewhere.

Current mood: Sleepy
Current music: Bliss / Syntax

Overnetworked

To those who have sent me multiple invites to Facebook, Pownce and other networking sites during the past few weeks: Please don't take it personally that I haven't accepted your invitation. But between trying to keep a semblance of a life outside of the online world, updating this blog and keeping up with you on your sites, I just don't have any more room in my day for another Web site to have to maintain.

I managed to resist not having a MySpace page for years. When I finally broke down and created one a few months ago, it was only to keep up with my sister, who, to her credit, had set her page to private. So did I. Even then, not days after that, I already had gotten spammed by total strangers requesting to be my friend, which was the reason I had resisted for so long. So anyway, I am not interested in creating another social-networking site page, but please don't think it's personal. This page (and MySpace) is all I can do.

Current mood: Productive
Current music: Starry-Eyed Surprise / Paul Oakenfold

A toast to the queen

From Oktoberfest

Happy birthday to my best girlfriend, who just turned for... Well, let's just say if you're as old as you feel, she'd be about 18. :D

Since my seeeeekly leeeetle birthday girl can't have beer, we made do with a lovely bottle of champagne before heading out to a local Oktoberfest street party. We typically have fun at these cheesy, monthly, themed events, but this one was overrun by rednecks and felt less like a whitebread facsimile of a biergarten and more like the Volusia County Fair.

So we bolted to the nearest Mexican restaurant -- somehow, chips and salsa always end up playing into our evening -- and caught up on each other's lives.

Happy birthday, P!

Current mood: Awake
Current music: The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove / Dead Can Dance

Behind the scenes...

... at Adult Swim's Robot Chicken

Current mood: Awake

Good read...

... about the Jena 6 case.

Current mood: Nervous
Current music: GDMFSOB / UNKLE

Tree-hugger spreading the word

Consider supporting the Local Guy -- and good health -- by having fresh organic produce delivered to your door weekly or biweekly. And while I'm at it, here's an environmentally-conscious and cheaper alternative to auto lobby AAA. I've been a member for two years, and the mail-in gas coupons they give you almost pay for the cost of membership.

Current mood: Wired

9/11's legacy

Much of the best analysis of the Iraq War doesn't even originate from our own U.S. media.

Current mood: Lethargic

Take that, productivity

I am addicted to Wikipedia. It's a nerd's dream. I can't count the number of hours I will never get back while reading about thylacines, Apple Records, Laika (sniff), the Battle of Thermopylae or Yukio Mishima, just to name a few.

It's almost as much of a time-killer as WoW, but at least I'm learning something.

Current mood: Anxious
Current music: All in My Mind / Love and Rockets

Made in China

Could the now-weekly Chinese toy recalls be getting out of hand? I'm beginning to think they're being instituted not out of a concern for children but more out of a fear of litigation.

When you and I grew up, we played with roughly those same toys, and we seemed to have grown up relatively sane and healthy. (OK, you can stop laughing now.) Our parents also came out fine, for the most part, and I'd have to guess the lead levels they were exposed to were higher than they are now. And they presumably had to deal with arsenic at their playgrounds. And the lead paint that lined their homes. And so forth and so forth.

I'm not trying to dismiss a matter of safety. Obviously, I do think there should be watchdogs over the manufacture of anything a child would handle. But something tells me these recalls aren't out of a genuine concern for kids' safety but more of a fear of lawsuits. A sign of the times, I guess.

Current mood: Reflective
Current music: Searchin' / Cabaret Voltaire

Steer clear of the salvo

OK, I have just stirred the pot, which goes against every fiber of my being.

A few months back, the disparate groups of women at my rowing club voted to merge together into one big group (that's a gross oversimplification of a very drama-filled story, but it will suffice for this explanation) under one coach. The rationale was that it would better develop new, novice rowers and make them feel as though we were one, big, happy family. Previously, each crew, or boat, managed itself, and the crews didn't much mix.

But one of the women's crews at my rowing club, which I will call Boat A, owns its own boat (i.e., does not have to share equipment with the rest of the club). When it came time to merge, Boat A decided not to participate in it, keeping themselves off to the side -- but keeping their membership current in case they need substitute rowers or to borrow equipment for some reason -- while the rest of us feel our way around in the Brave New World.

In a nutshell, that is the history of their club membership and participation in group activities, a microcosm of how they always have dealt with the rest of the club.

I will be the first to point out that it greatly has worked to their advantage: They almost always row with the same lineup of women, never having to deal with rotating lineups or widely varying skill levels; they aren't bothered by rowers who no-show to practice; and they never have to worry about not having a boat available to take out, since they own their own. As a result, they are the fastest, most efficient women's crew in the club. They even recently won a national championship in a masters rowing division.

However, over the years, they have continually been confronted with criticism that they are elitist and not team players, refusing to incubate new members by allowing them into their lineup until they deem them fit or worthy enough. They have instead preferred to hand-pick their members. But how can the club grow when new, novice members aren't made to feel like they fit in?

(Long aside: In a past posting, I have compared them vs. my crew, "Boat B," with the pros and cons of a dictatorship vs. a pure democracy. Our operations are polar opposites. They run their ship with perfectionism and strict efficiency, and there is accountability for slip-ups [they have been known to kick rowers out of their boat for repeated tardiness]. A couple of their rowers make all of the decisions, settle all differences and take care of all problems, and the rest just nod, show up and row, with no baggage or responsibility -- which is how they like it. Among themselves, they rarely have differences to settle. My boat, on the other hand, historically has been bogged down by tardiness, second-guessing and clouds of indecision, because each individual rower has an equal say -- sometimes a long one at that. But we like to operate under the assumptions that [1] we're all adults and can hold ourselves accountable [often that's true, sometimes we frustratingly manage to disprove that] and that [2] everyone's opinion does matter -- but that's how we like it.)

I must point out here that Boat A always has been very defensive about their positions, and they have two to three very opinionated, type-A personalities who tend to dominate most meetings (the aforementioned women who make all of the decisions). Thus, they are very aggressive in their interpersonal dealings and tend to get what they want, because many of the rest of us are not as confrontational and most of the time just don't want to get into it with them. (There are stories here regarding this, one involving me, in a very, very rare instance of losing my composure, having a freakout directed straight to them, but that's for another day.)

There have been a few instances this year when Boat A has asked to borrow either equipment or rowers from the rest of the women's program. But I and several other, more vocal, club members have fought to keep Boat A separate from the women's crews that merged. My feeling is that they made their bed, now they must lie in it. I may be the one not being a team player here, but I firmly think it's not fair they sit out on the merge yet want to play in our sandbox at their convenience.

Today, Boat A asked that the boat they row/own be included in an online database of club boats. The club's online database also functions as a calendar for reserving boats, oars, launches and rowing machines for use. Boat A's argument is that it will allow other crews to know when they're practicing and when they're out on the water.

I replied to the e-mail request, sent to Boat A and much of the club's management, by saying I didn't think Boat A's boat should be included in the online database. I said the database is for reserving club equipment, and their boat is privately-owned and thus not available to reserve by club members. There is a log book in the boathouse in which crews are supposed to document "time in" and "time out," for safety purposes, so that others know who is out on the water when. I said that should suffice for Boat A's concern about letting others know when they're on the water.

Speaking of the logbook, I've also taken to calling our boat "ORC [Orlando Rowing Club] A" when logging us in and out each time we row. As Boat B's captain, I'm the person who is responsible for this duty, and for years, I'd been logging us as "ORC B." But with Boat A's decision not to participate in the merge -- which is what the club's women's program voted to do -- I no longer feel as though they're part of the "official" program but more of a separate club that happens to share our boathouse.

I haven't gotten a response yet from anyone in their boat about the e-mail. It's been unusually quiet. They are typically one of the first to shoot back a retort.

As most people are, it's easier for me to be confrontational when I'm hiding behind a keyboard. But I still believe I said the right thing. Ask me again in another day or so.

Current mood: Hungry

The Great Iraq Swindle

My blood boils over what my own government has wrought. This insanity must end. Whatever happened to integrity, honesty, patriotism (not to be confused with jingoism) and concern for your fellow countrymen? Are those basic values no longer based in reality, just a pollyanna pipe dream? I'd always counted myself blessed to have been born in this country. This administration has, for the first time, made me question that belief.

Bechtel was given $50 million to build the [Basra children's] hospital -- but a year later, with the price tag soaring to $169 million, the company was pulled off the project without a single bed being ready for use. The government was unfazed: Bechtel, explained USAID spokesman David Snider, was "under a 'term contract,' which means their job is over when their money ends."

Their job is over when their money ends. When I call Snider to clarify this amazing statement, he declines to discuss the matter further. But if you look over the history of the Iraqi reconstruction ­effort, you will find versions of this excuse every­where. When [contractor] Custer Battles was caught delivering broken trucks to the Army, a military official says the company told him, "We were only told we had to deliver the trucks. The contract doesn't say they had to work."

Such excuses speak to a monstrous vacuum of patriotism; it would be hard to imagine contractors being so blithely disinterested in results during World War II, where every wasted dollar might mean another American boy dead from gangrene in the Ardennes. But the rampant waste of money and resources also suggests a widespread contempt for the ostensible "purpose" of our presence in Iraq. Asked to cast a vote for the war effort, contractors responded by swiping everything they could get their hands on -- and the administration's acquiescence in their thievery suggests that it, too, saw making a buck as the true mission of the war. Two witnesses scheduled to testify before Congress against Custer Battles ultimately declined not only because they had received death threats but because they, too, were contractors and feared that they would be shut out of future government deals. To repeat: Witnesses were afraid to testify in an effort to ­recover government funds because they feared reprisal from the government.

Read the full story here.

Current mood: Helpless

Argh

The dirt-cheap plane ticket to Chattanooga I was going to book when I got into work this afternoon -- $49 one way -- doubled in price as I slept this morning!

Current mood: Annoyed
Current music: Troubled Mind / Everything But the Girl