Archives for September 2013

The Movie Test

My wife and I met twenty-five years ago, as of this December. She was literally the teacher, and I the student when I took a week-long UNIX system administration course just before the Christmas holiday in 1988, mostly because my co-worker friend Mark signed up, but decided at the very last minute that he didn't want to attend. I was looking for someplace to hide so my boss couldn't send me to another yet customer site. The single "fly-and-fix" debugging expert in my group,I'd been on the road for almost eight straight months, six of which I spent living in Hong Kong. I just wanted to stay close to home, so I took Mark's place, even though I had no interest or need to take the class. It seemed that Lisa and I were destined to meet, fall in love, and get married. Both of us were "on the rebound" as they say...Lisa came as a package deal from her divorce that hadn't even been finalized, with an adorable three-year-old daughter who is now the mother of our three grandchildren, and I remained a little gun-shy after a failed international romance. Needless to say, we were advised to slow things down after I announced our wedding date had moved forward from September to May, less than six months after we first met. We didn't listen. If I had any lingering personal doubts about my bride-to-be, it was that she seemed too good to be true. However, I wasn't completely sure that I trusted my own judgment. Perhaps a few of the naysayers advising unnecessary caution had some subtle influence on my thinking at the time, or perhaps it was fact I'd been burned … [Read more...]

I blame you for whatever is wrong with Miley Cyrus

Don't blame me. It's your fault. Yes, you. You buy her records. I don't. Obviously, you watch crap like the MTV Video Music Awards. Somebody does. I most certainly don't. You wrote about it on your blog, or talked about it on Facebook. You must, because somebody does. Okay, so I finally broke down and wrote about her too, but only in reaction to her first post-show interview. But I only intend to divulge the cure for crap like this that poses for entertainment, make my point, and move along; no dwelling on this subject. Here's the secret to putting an end to these lurid displays: turn the channel. Don't buy that CD. Avert your eyes from that train wreck. If I'm never as famous as Miley Cyrus is today, please listen and believe me as I give thanks to God. Whoever coined the phrase "ignorance is bliss" certainly had a valid point. The less I knew about the Miley Cyrus performance at the VMA, the better. Only a few years ago, my granddaughter idolized Miley Cyrus, at least in her Disney persona, Hannah Montana. What in God's name happened to Miley? I never watched the Disney program, of course, but my daughter assured me the show was harmless, wholesome entertainment. Thankfully, I also didn't watch Miley Cyrus perform her infamous "twerking" soft porn dance routine at the VMA, neither harmless or wholesome. It was nothing short of pathetic and disgusting. What message did that send to young and impressionable minds? Now if you were as blissfully ignorant about this twerking phenomenon as me, this video may help. Jae Tracie offered a … [Read more...]