Category Archives: Uncategorized

Andy Olmsted

This is the closest I've come to losing someone I know to this stupid war. And I hope it never gets any closer. To me, Andrew was a guy I only knew as an occasional poster and frequent commenter on Obsidian Wings, and I doubt we exchanged more than a few comments directly to each other. He had a different perspective from mine, but nonetheless seemed like a smart, decent and straight-up kind of person. No, I didn't know him at all, really, but it hurts anyway. I can't imagine what his family and friends feel.

It's just horrible.

Even if he says it isn't, and that serving was his choice, I can't help but feel: What a waste.

It doesn't help that my office had a good-bye lunch today, literally minutes before I learned of Andrew's death, for a friend at work who was just called-up from inactive reserve, to do a 400 day tour of Afghanistan.

Such a stupid waste.

Hating JK Rowling

Sam Wollaston in The Guardian

I hate JK Rowling. I think any honest person who writes for a living hates JK Rowling. Yes, of course, it's jealousy. But are her words, and the order in which she puts them down, really so much better than the rest of ours? Is it right that it takes her exactly 1.7 seconds to earn my entire annual salary?

Reminds me of this internet chestnut.

Christmas Miracles

Woke up this morning, looked out the window and discovered that someone had tied a giant air-filled Homer to one of our patio seats, and plugged his air pump into one of the outlets on the side of our garage. We're not sure who put him there, though we have our suspicions.

Later, I went for a walk around the neighborhood, while Mrs C was relaxing... when I got back, I saw a big male ring-necked pheasant walking around the alley in back of our house. I walked up to it to get a better look and it walked up to meet me, fearlessly. It looked me over a bit, then walked on by. It was close enough I could've reached down and grabbed it. In fact, I backed up to get out of its way. Beautiful thing. It didn't look sick or injured, but I assume pheasants aren't usually glad to see people - do people keep pheasants as pets? Anyway, I ran back to my house to get a camera, but it had wandered into someone's back yard by the time I returned, and I didn't want to pursue.

In other pheasant news...

Glens Falls, Represent!

A letter to the editor in my (former) hometown newspaper:

First of all, I must admit that I am a male chauvinist and that there are, thankfully, differences between men and women. There are many occupations suitable for women and their physical attributes. Carrying a weapon while serving in the Armed Forces and firefighting are not suitable lines of work for women to prove that they are physically equal to men. How many male police officers feel comfortable with a 100 pound female backup?

And now, I have to add serving in the U.S. House and Senate as an occupation that may not be suitable for women.

...

By comparison to upstate New York, my new home of central North Carolina often feels downright enlightened. It's odd that the stereotype says the reverse.