Blog of Bermanism

This is the obligatory first blog post of the New Year in which I wish everyone a healthy and happy and recession-reducing new year. We spent the New Year in Lake Tahoe at my cousin’s best friend’s cabin. It was a great time, and certainly much more successful than the last time we tried to have New Years at that cabin. Rachel (who can’t ski because of bad knees) was good enough to volunteer to stay home at the cabin with Sasha while the rest of us went off and skied our hearts out in the way-better-than-normal early season conditions at Squaw and Northstar. I think I really needed to bomb down some mountains to re-center myself after this last year, so I’m very grateful that Rachel is supportive enough to have a not-so-exciting weekend so that I can. If she wasn’t willing, I’d probably never ski again. Anyway, I had a wonderful time skiing with my cousin and her husband (which, I guess, makes him my cousin too). The lift lines were short, the mountains were pretty much empty and the snow was great. We managed around 16-17 runs each day, so my legs are pretty blitzed, but it was a great first few ski days of the season and I really feel like I got my ski legs back under me.

So, now that I have my skiing addiction tamed for the time being, it is time to turn our attention to 2009. I do, in fact, have some New Year’s Resolutions. I’m writing them in my blog for all to see:

1. I want to be better at keeping in touch with people: I really let this fall off this year. I probably have about 10 people that I should keep in regular touch with. This isn’t a tall order and I just need to make the time for it. I also tend to let emails, texts, and voice mails go unanswered for a long period of time, and let’s not even talk about Facebook. I’ve gone two months without replying to people on there. So, I resolve to be better about communicating. I do actually have the time to do it, I just need to make it happen.
2. I want to move on to the next phase of my career in 2009. This is complicated beyond explanation, mainly because I’m not sure if I want to go into industry or academics. I suppose I’m going to wait and see what comes from my postdoc and then decide based on what I’m qualified for. So, this is my major resolution, and it is a big one, but it is time to move on in my career.

That’s it! I only have two resolutions. The rest of my life has been pretty awesome and I really wouldn’t change very much of it. I’ve been pretty lucky that way and I hope it continues. So, Happy New Year to all! I hope it finds all of you in comfort and good health.

This is so scary.

Basically what the article is saying, to those who don’t have the appropriate number of geek points, is that the entire infrastructure that secure websites are based on (like credit card companies, banks, online shopping, etc) can be spoofed so that you could be viewing a valid secure site, but it is under the control of someone who is trying to steal your information. And, you would have no idea that you aren’t viewing a valid site because your web browser would tell you that the site is secure and trusted (the little padlock on the browser).

The thing that I don’t get is, why do companies write these incredibly complicated algorithms to hack through infrastructures that are well in place only to publish the vulnerabilities online where all the hackers can get wind of exactly how to exploit these issues? I’m one for open information, but I would have a solution in place before pointing out that PKI has a big-ass hole in it and writing the program that can make your fake certificate authority so that the identity theft can ensue. Seems a little backwards to me, but what do I know?

I do know that in the linux server world, having people work hard to break through security protocols has resulted in very fast security updates that are released at the same time as the vulnerability itself. This method has resulted in the generation of a VERY secure system. Apple and Microsoft have also adopted this methodology. My problem with this case is that they released the vulnerability with no fix ready to be implemented. I think this is a bit like lighting off fireworks over your super-secret army camp in Baghdad, hoping that none of the enemy will see where your super-secret encampment is, then asking them not to hurt you because you’re cute and lit off pretty fireworks. It is a little silly.

Still though, the problem that they pointed out is scary as hell. I no longer trust the internets.

Oh, and this:

Oh my God! He does exist!

Yes, I’m actually posting in my blog for the first time since July.

What can I say? A lot has been going on. I’m going to keep this short in the spirit of posting a lot more, but here’s a bulleted synopsis of the last six months in the land of Bermanism, in order of stream of consciousness:

• Sasha is now eight months old. (!!!!) Time sure does fly. She’s huge. She’s turned from a weird alien-human hybrid to full on small person. She’s crawling, sitting up, pulling up on and standing next to almost anything, eating solid food, babbling up a storm, and not sleeping. She’s pretty incredible and a blast, despite the recent rash of not sleeping. It seems that she’d rather stand up and jump around in her crib than sleep. See her latest pictures and movies to get the gist of what I mean.
• Sasha has now been to five states (Alaska, Ohio, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania) and on 15 flights. She’s better traveled at 8 months old than most people are when they’re 20 years old.
• Sasha had her first Chanukkah, which was cute. She got a ton of gifts, which has forced us to reorganize and get rid of some of her younger-months favorites (at least put them in storage). She’s really good at ripping gift wrap and immediately putting whatever was inside in her mouth. As far as that goes, she likes Chanukkah. I’m sure it will carry more meaning next year. We went to Union Square last night for the last night of Chanukkah to see the giant Menorah lighting. It was really cool and nice. Check out our pictures to see if Rachel has posted them yet.
• Rachel returned to work, but figured out that she only needs to work part-time for us to make ends meet. So, I stay home with Sasha in the morning (until 12:30) while Rachel works, then I go to work from 1pm until 8-10pm. It is a hard schedule, but it does two positive things and two negative things. On the positive side, it allows me to be an active part of Sasha’s life and to spend a lot of time with her, which I absolutely love (and I think she does too), and it avoids the $2000+/month cost of having a baby-sitter or day-care, both of which are not great for Sasha in general. On the negative side, Rachel and I spend about 15 minutes/day with each other Mon - Thur and I’m freakin’ exhausted by Thursday night. Friday is a normal day for me because Rachel doesn’t have to work, so that is nice. The bottom line is that this schedule is temporary until I get a job that can actually support the family and Rachel can stop working, which is what she wants. So, it is hard, it is a big sacrifice, but the rewards seem to be greater than the sacrifice, in general, so we’ll keep doing this.
• I’ve raced at the Masters National Championships (and came home with three medals), and at the Head of the Charles Regatta, where our boat came in 4th out of 32 boats and came home with a medal, the first ever for me at that race. At the same time, we lost our coach right before Nationals, I happened to be the captain, and I spent an enormous amount of time trying to fill the giant vacuum left by Jim for the next four months before we hired a new coach who seems to be working out quite well. To be quite honest, the majority of my free time went into maintaining our team and planning and organizing the Head of the Charles for the team. This is why I haven’t blogged (or anything else) in forever. The captain’s duties, taking care of Sasha, and work took up all of my time. Luckily, my team pulled through really well and we’re still as fast, if not faster than we were before. I’m no longer captain, so I can just row, which is nice.
• I’ve now lost a collective 55 pounds since graduate school. I decided to lose my last 15 pounds before Masters Nationals, and now weigh 155 (from 210). Actually, I weigh more like 158 after the holidays, but I’ll be erging a lot over the next two weeks and it will come right back off. I’m actually almost back to my college weight, which is crazy. I never thought I’d be there again.
• I’m officially in the last 6-12 months of my postdoc in San Francisco. This means that I have to actively start looking for my first “real” job after the 1st of the year. It also means that I have to put my nose to the grindstone to really get my papers finished and out so that I can actually be marketable for people to hire. It also seems that my graduate papers may actually get published sometime in the near future, which would be awesome for me and would really help out with the whole career thing. I’m not sure if we’ll stay in the Bay Area or not. It would be much easier to live closer to family, so I’m going to look in Texas as well. Actually, I’m looking everywhere. I’m not sure whether I’ll be looking at Biotech or Academics. It is open, and I’ll look at both.
• I’m still really enjoying brewing beer. It is really fun. I’ve brewed a Honey Wheat, an Imperial Red, and a Pale Ale since I last wrote in the blog. The Pale Ale was brewed for my friend Tyler’s wedding, so I didn’t get much of that batch. It was a hit at the wedding though. The Honey Wheat wasn’t my favorite and I probably won’t be making that again. The Imperial Red is awesome. I made it really strong and pretty hoppy, on purpose. It balances nicely. I recently brewed my version of a holiday lager. For now I’m calling it an Egg Nog Lager (no, there are no eggs in it). Most people wince when I tell them the name of the beer, so I need to come up with a new name for it. But, it is a pale lager with vanilla, nutmeg and allspice in it. It should taste like beer with a hint of the main flavors from egg nog. But, maybe I should just call it a spiced vanilla holiday lager so that people aren’t grossed out by the thought of it. I’ve gotten more than a few visceral reactions to the name. Next I want to remake my Chocolate Raspberry brown ale or my lager, which tasted a lot like Sam Adams, but stronger. I may also make a Dopplebock. I haven’t decided. I really need to brew two beers at once to be truely happy. I may try it. (yikes!)
• I’ve rekindled my love of cooking. I’ve been baking and cooking a lot recently, much to Rachel’s advantage (or disadvantage, if you look from a caloric perspective). It has been fun to get back to that.
• I turned 34 in November. That was exciting.
• We elected a black, progressive president in an attempt to clean up the giant mess that is our government and its affairs, but you probably already knew that. I hope he can accomplish what he’s capable of accomplishing.
• We lost a TON of money in the recession. But so did everyone else. It still sucks though.
• People started driving their huge SUVs again once gas prices returned to 2004 prices. That sucks too. I’m happy to say that I drive a fast sports car that gets 32mpg. Yay Toyota.

I’m sure there’s  a lot more to post here, but those are the major events. As I always say about now, I’m going to try to start posting more. I’m going to try to post shorter things that take around 15 minutes to write, rather than my previous novellas. I think I’ll get more out this way. We’ll see. I missed you, I hope you missed me and come back to read more often again.

Peace.

Rachel, Sasha, and I went to Alaska two weeks ago for a family vacation with Rachel’s family. Rachel’s dad had a meeting in a small town south of Anchorage called Girdwood, at a resort called the Alyeska resort. The resort is located at the southern edge of the Chugach State Park, which is home to the legendary Chugach mountains and to some of the best skiing in the world. As such, I was totally excited about going on this trip, mainly because Girdwood is home to the Chugach Powder Guides, some of the best heli-skiing guides in the nation. They are always featured on the Warren Miller films. So, it is one of my dream vacations to go up there and heli-ski for a week with a few close ski buddies. It is crazy expensive though, around $6000. Rachel says that might be a good 40th birthday gift. We’ll see.

I’m not going to go into incredible detail in this post, because I don’t really have time to write an epic tale of our trek to Alaska, so here is, in a nutshell, what we did. We got onto a non-stop flight in San Francisco and were in Anchorage 4.5 hours later. This was Sasha’s first flight, and she did really well on it. Her ears didn’t bother her and she was cute and fascinated by the whole experience, not to mention that the stewardesses loved her. Anyway, we got to Anchorage at around 11:30pm, and the sun had just set (yes, the sun is up for 19.5 hours this time of year, and it never really gets dark). So, that was kind of strange, but really cool. The weather looked a lot like San Francisco in the summer time, 50’s and 60’s with fog everywhere, with the addition of giant mountains all over the place. We drove to Girdwood where we shacked up in a three bedroom cabin with Rachel’s folks and her brother and his wife. It was very nice and had a hot tub (win!) that I never got to use (fail). Sleeping for Rachel and I was fairly easy with it being light all night long because we’re both pretty used to no schedule with Sasha, so it was all normal to us.

The next day we headed up to the hotel Alyeska to check things out and get some lunch (once we all got moving again). The hotel was nice, but a lot smaller than it seems in the pictures. Also, we found out that it is a $300/night place (!!!). I can tell you that it didn’t seem worth that to me. Anyway, we hung out walked around, had the WORST service I’ve ever had at a restaurant anywhere in the world while trying to have lunch, then tried to avoid the rain for awhile before heading off to a wildlife preserve to see moose, elk, bison, musk oxen, and black bears. The wildlife preserve was nice, but we spent a lot of the time trying to avoid the rain. Yes, it rained almost the entire time we were there, endlessly. It would have been nice to know before we went to Alaska that Girdwood is the most northerly rain forest in the world. That’s right, a rain forest! I suppose that explains why they get 65 feet of snow every year (905″ last year), and thus the legendary snow.

Anyway, trying once again to keep this post short and sweet, we went to the thriving metropolis of Whittier, and caught a tour boat that took us around Prince William Sound to see the Blackstone glacier. It was pretty remarkable, and the ship got pretty close up to the head of it (check out pictures in our Photo journal). Sasha liked the boat ride as well and really enjoyed trying to watch the white water crest off of the side of the boat as we went on our way. We also took a train tour up into the mountains on another glacier tour. This was fun because we got to hang out on a real train, also a first for Sasha. It was a nice tour, lots of sights, wildlife, and mountains, which I love. The next day, the sun came out and Rachel and I went on a six mile hike all the way across the valley and back, which took us to a gorge that we had to cross using a hand-tram, which was WAY cool:

This was a really fun hike, except for the swarms of mosquitoes that attacked us every time we stopped for 10 seconds.

Probably the coolest thing that the group did in Alaska, that I didn’t get to do because I volunteered for Sasha duty, was take a helicopter ride up to the top of a glacier and ride Iditarod sleds around while seeing how the dogs are trained during the summer for the race next spring. Rachel said the dogs were really cool, but not what she expected and that Hollyweird had really done a number on what people would expect the dogs to look like. These dogs were true Alaskan Malmutes. The dogs used in the movies are Siberian Huskies, definitely prettier dogs than the mutt that is the Malmute. She said they were all different shapes, sizes and colors and that they were skinny and in great shape. There are some great pictures of it in our photos section. Anyway, Rachel and Co. got to ride around the glacier on the dog sleds, and they said that it was really fun. One of the most remarkable things was that, once a team of dogs got hooked up to a sled all 100 or so dogs started to go nuts and got really excited, jumping around and barking because they knew a team was about to go out. She said that dogs were really cute and it was really cool experience. I’m a little sad that I missed it, but I have to admit that nothing quite beats being able to spend four hours with my daughter, just the two of us.

Finally, we got to go to the top of Mount Alyeska for dinner one night (taking the tram). The view from up there was really pretty, but it totally made me want to go skiing. I almost can’t help being at a ski resort and not ski. The restaurant was a four diamond restaurant, something virtually unheard of in Alaska. The food was very good and the service was, for once, excellent. The best part was, of course, the view. You could see the entire valley and a lot of Turnagain Arm, the inlet from Chickaloon bay that leads from the ocean to Anchorage in southern Alaska.

The next day we left. We headed out through Anchorage again and were about an hour delayed leaving because they realized, after we were on the plane, that the plane had a flat tire. So, with everyone on board, they jacked up the side of the plane and replaced the tire. This of course was done by a half-wit, one competent guy and a dog, so it took about an hour to complete the project, while we were sitting on the plane with a restless baby and 300 fisherman fresh of the boat, and I do mean fresh! It did not smell very good in there. One we got into the air, we headed for Seattle. We got there just in time to make our connection to San Francisco, so we ran off of the plane and onto the next one, which was thankfully only one gate away. We sat down and they announced a 45 minute delay imposed by SFO because of excessive smoke in the area from all of th forest fires. So, we sat again until the plane finally took off. All-in-all, it took us around 7 hours to get home. Sasha’s schedule was a mess and so there wasn’t much sleep to be had that night by any of us. We learned very quickly that if were flying with Sasha at this age, that we really need to spring for the non-stop flights. They go much more smoothly.

So, my impression of Alaska is that the entire place is just majestic, extreme and virtually untouched by the influences of modern society. In fact, it kind of reminded me of being in nowhere middle America, where there is nothing but grassland and the occasional redneck on a tractor going to his neighbors to share they cow they just slaughtered. The people were very simple, not too bright, and totally unaware of things like conservation and preservation. I suppose that since the human population in Alaska is so sparse, they figure that the impact the people will have there isn’t that great, so why conserve or try to keep Alaska in its current state? Alaska is beautiful, the glaciers are amazing, the mountains are incredible, the weather this time of year in Girdwood sucks. Alaska is the type of place that outdoorsman would love. It is a haven for fishermen and hunters and back country skiers and hikers. It really isn’t the place to go have a luxurious vacation. If your idea of a great vacation is to sit on a warm beach somewhere sipping Mai Tais, don’t go to Alaska. If you’re a fan of natural beauty of all sorts, even if it is cold and wet, then you’ll love it there and you should go check it out. I loved it, I think it was a great experience for Sasha, and I think Rachel has checked it off of her list. Go figure.

Sasha had her second doctor’s appointment this morning where we received updated statistics on her vitals. The bottom line is that she’s doing extremely well, she’s super healthy, very muscular, and has no visible signs of any problems. She now weighs 11lbs, 6oz, up from 8lbs, 13oz one month ago and she grew to 22.25in from 21.25in last time. Her current weight puts her in the 43rd percentile for the national average of baby births. Considering that she started out in the 30th percentile, I’d say she’s starting to catch up (Yay small people!).

Sasha also received her first set of booster shots this morning, so she’ll not be feeling so hot over the next day or so, which kind of sucks because she’s also taking her first plane ride this evening. But, Rachel gave her Tylenol this morning and she seems to be doing fine so far. It is funny because the Tylenol, which is cherry flavored, is the first non-milk thing that Sasha has ever consumed. I would have loved to have seen her face when she was given that. Rachel said that she just sat there and sucked on the dropper a little, but didn’t seem to mind it at all.

Anyway, that’s the scoop. She’s doing really well, yay Sasha! We’ll see how she fares in Alaska.

As you’re probably aware, Rachel and I (well, mostly Rachel) brought our first child, Sasha, into the world nine weeks ago yesterday (holy crap!!). As such, I was lucky enough to be able to have my first Father’s Day shortly afterwards. Rachel was also able to have her first Mother’s Day when Sasha was three weeks old, but insisted that I not do anything for her because she was such a new mom and we had all we could do to sleep and eat with this new little life that we had created. So, I felt that it was only fair that I return the favor and ask that she not do anything for me either. She, naturally, had to get me some very nice cards, but we otherwise didn’t do anything special, except RACE OUR ASSES OFF!

That’s right, we raced at the Lake Merritt Sprints in Oakland on Father’s Day this year, and it was a fantastic experience for me. It was the second race that Sasha has been to, and the second race in a row that I performed very well at. I’m starting to think that Sasha will need to be at all of my races from now on, since she’s such good luck. Rachel raced as well, her first race back since Sasha was born. I think she’s made incredible progress in the last nine weeks, but she feels like she still has a long way to go.

Anyway, Lake Merritt sets up a 1000m course for masters sprints. My team from the Marin Rowing Association has been doing very well lately and the depth to our rowing continues to increase to the point where our boats are usually coming in 1st and 2nd in the same race. So, I expected us to do well. But, I didn’t expect that I would win 3 out of my four races! This was a new level of success for me and it was a lot of fun.

Our 8+ flew down the course, and we won comfortably, which was a good thing since I had been seat raced into that boat against a very tall and very capable guy on our team. The 8+ was a very young boat, masters A level (21 - 35). I really wanted this boat to do well since we are starting to reach a critical mass of people on the team that can make up very competitive A boats, instead of B - F (which we still have). But, the young lineups can go harder and faster than the older crews, so they are fun to row. So, we definitely did well, but were lacking our main competition, Kent Mitchell Rowing Club. These guys are mostly ex-national team members and are naturally very, very fast. In fact, they are usually our litmus test, verifying whether we are actually fast or not. Either way though, it was fun and some of the other teams that were racing that day were very fast and made us work to get out ahead.

Next, I was in a pair with one of my great friends, Ken. This boat has been kind of our little secret until this last weekend. Both Ken and I tend to have really good boat feel, we can blend pretty well with whatever boat we’re rowing with. Since Ken and I are training partners, we thought it would be a good idea to try out a pair. Now, if you know nothing about rowing, a pair is just what it sounds like, a two-person boat. The kicker is that in this type of boat, each rower has one oar, which makes it, effectively, the most difficult boat to row out of all other types of boats. If the two rowers aren’t well matched or dont’t blend well together, the stronger of the two will pull the boat around in circles. Additionally, it is a really difficult boat to set (balance). Each person has to pretty much do exactly what the other person is doing or else the boat won’t go straight, won’t be balanced, and will go slower. So, if you haven’t gotten it by now, it is a real challenge to make one of these boats work. Ken and I have been practicing our pair for a little over a year now, and we’re starting to get very fast; fast in the sense that it would surprise some folks given our strength and size. We had raced this boat at LMS last year and done pretty well, but we were very rough, I didn’t steer a straight course and we wasted a lot of energy. The last year has been spent trying to clean it up, get stronger, and make the boat very efficient, and we seem to have hit a new stride in the boat in the last few weeks. We raced against another pair from our team, made up of two of our fastest and best rowers (who also won worlds in the pair together). So, being anywhere near them at the end of the race would have been awesome. We decided to row our own race, the way we had planned and practiced and see what happened. The result, we did very well. We didn’t win (we came in third, out of three), but it was the closest overall race of the entire day. Spectators thought that we were all pretty much even coming through the 750m mark, and indeed, we were very close. The River City boat that was also in our race was VERY fast (surprising, I was very impressed by them). Anyway, we ended up 2.8 seconds down at the end (after handicaps) on our other crew. We were actually really pleased with this result since we had made two fatal mistakes during this race. We didn’t do the start that we had discussed (and veered way off course as a result, lost a few seconds there for sure), and I didn’t call the sprint until we had 15 strokes to go. Corrections to both of those mistakes, and I have to believe that we could have won. It was really fun though, and I think Ken and I raised some eyebrows by being anywhere near those other boats at the finish, which was our goal. We are now racing this boat at SW Masters and at Nationals in August. We’re very excited!

On a side note, Ken and I went out this morning and hit a stride in that boat that was super fast and very efficient, not to mention really enjoyable. If we can do that for a whole race, we’ll be a serious threat to the other crews. Weird how I wrote the most about the boat that I lost in, huh?

Anyway, since I’ve already written a whole lot, I just do a quick synopsis of the other two races, which were equally awesome, but in very different ways.

My next race was a Men’s 4+, with some great guys from my team. We were supposed to be the “lightweight” boat, but not actually lightweight. There’s no doubt that we were smaller than the other Marin crew, and we were supposed to be slower. We ended up beating them by 6 seconds (that’s a lot in a 1k race). After the handicap, we beat them by 1 second, since we were a bit younger than they were. It was quite an upset and we were totally psyched, and came away with a gold.

The last race that I was in was a Mixed 4+ with Ken and I, and Rachel and her doubles partner Tanya. The four of us have raced a mixed quad for a long time, but we’d never tried a MX4+ (the difference is that the quad has eight oars and no coxswain, and the four has four oars and a coxswain). Anyway, the short of this race was that Ken, who was in stroke seat, just came off of the water from a pretty bad race and was mad. Rachel and Tanya hadn’t won anything all day in their other two races (they got screwed in one of the races, and just had some crazy competition in the other race), and I was tired from three hard races, but wanted to blow this one out. We didn’t know what kind of margin we had to win by, but we knew that at least one of the other boats had 12 seconds on us. All we knew is that we had to move out, and fast. So, we went out for blood. Ken set a pace out of the starting blocks that was pretty insane, but eventually settled down to a more manageable pace (for Ken and I, Rachel and Tanya were hanging on for dear life because they don’t usually race at those rates). The short of it is that we killed the field. We pulled what is affectionately termed, a horizon job, or as Ken likes to say, “Humiliating speed”. It was so fun, a great way to finish out the day, and a great race. We beat the next boat (which wasn’t even in our race, technically) by 15 seconds and the next boat by 23 seconds. It was pretty awesome, and we got to get Rachel her first gold medal since her pregnancy.

So, that, in a nutshell was my first Father’s Day. But, even though the bulk of this post is about the race, the best part of the day by far was that I was able to come off of the water and find my daughter hanging out with either Rachel or Kelly. It just brightens up any day of mine to see her cute little face. So, I gave Sasha all of my medals because in my mind, she’s the winner of the best daughter in the world award. Thanks Sasha, you’re the best and I love you more than you’ll ever know!

There are so many reasons, but the main one is the uncanny ability of his comics to reflect the seedy and intelligent underbelly of the events of my life. The latest comic strip had me laughing out loud:

The alt tag on that comic was: “Ma’am, I admit that wasn’t in the best taste, but you have to admire my delivery! Ha ha, get it? Oh God, don’t throw those syringes! Your baby’s fine!”

Having recently experienced Rachel going through labor, I can image how ridiculous this scene would be, epidural or not. This comic wins many awesomeness points though.

See more zany goodness at http://www.xkcd.com.

For a long time now (going on around 15 years), I’ve had this itch to write a science fiction/fantasy novel. I’ve had, what I think, is a really great idea for novel for a really long time and I’d love to start getting it down on paper. It is the sort of story that should write itself once it is started and could really delve into some interesting topics. The idea of it is inspired by many of the ideas put forth by my favorite author, Orson Scott Card. I’m not going to reveal anything about the storyline, in case I ever do get to write it, but suffice it to say that if you even remotely enjoyed Ender’s Game, you’ll probably like the premise of my story.

The problem is, of course, that I most certainly do not have time to do something like this. Most authors completely immerse themselves in a project like a novel and only experience the world they’re creating for few months. Then, they edit the crap out of it, rewrite parts of the story, make it go somewhere else, then finally show it to an editor and have them get an publisher interested in it. The process takes a lot of time. And, as most of you know, time is something that I do not have in abundance. At all. In fact, I can’t even get enough time to regularly post in this blog, except for brief flurries of activity spaced out by a few months in between.

That being said, I’ve wanted to explore the creative side of writing ever since I was in college. This interest was renewed when my friend Chris did the “Write a novel in a month” challenge. So, I want to figure out how to do this. The problem with me is that, when I decide to do something, I want to do it very well. If I can’t do it well, I don’t do it at all. Hence the reason why my blog posts are so few and far between. I usually want to write very in-depth posts about a wide array of topics, and me just sitting down and spraying out my thoughts onto your screen just isn’t good enough for me. So, I’d rather not post.

This is an aspect of my personality that I’m trying to change (hence this post, which really doesn’t say anything). So, I think I’m going to try to start writing this thing, but I’m going to do it a little bit at a time. I’ll only work on it for 15 or 20 minutes/day, and only on days that I have an extra 15 or 20 minutes, and it is OK if it takes me 15 years to finish. Once I have the first chapter done, I think I’ll post it here and see if people like it. If it is liked, I’ll continue with it. If it sucks, or writing a novel is just not something that I can do, then I won’t do it and I’ll have my non-existent free time back. Rachel would tell me that this is insane and that I have so many other things to do. And, she would be absolutely right. But, life is short and you can make time for things that are important to you. What do you think, should I write it?

Since it seems that I’ve only been posting about Sasha lately, I’ve decided to interject a little real world diatribe into this post. The topic of choice? Politics.

I’m usually really careful not to post my political views in my blog, for several reasons. Since my blog is pretty obviously tied to me personally (and not some anonymous web-junky who can spout any opinion have it not come back to bite them), I have to watch what I say. You never know who could be reading your blog, could be future employers who don’t share your political views, and we know that according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, not sharing your potential employers’ political views is clear grounds for denial of employment. So, I usually keep this stuff out of here. But, a few things have really struck me as completely ridiculous in this round of presidential primaries and I wanted to share my thoughts on the subject.

First, the media has done their best to spin the most ridiculous side possible of the candidates that are running. It makes me feel like I’m watching a bad satire on Saturday Night Live or something. The best example I can think of is the debate between Clinton and Obama on April 16, 2008. The whole thing was really screwed up, both by design and by the moderators, notably Charlie Gibson. But, the thing that really got me were the totally irrelevant topics that were “hotly” debated. I realize I’m a little slow on the uptake on this issue, but there was a significant amount of time spent during that debate on the fact that Senator Obama doesn’t always wear an American flag pin. (!!!!!). Here’s an excerpt from the transcript:

NASH MCCABE, VOTER: Senator Obama, I have a question, and I want to know if you believe in the American flag. I am not questioning your patriotism, but all our servicemen, policemen and EMS wear the flag. I want to know why you don’t.

GIBSON: Just to add to that, I noticed you put one on yesterday. But you’ve talked about this before, but it comes up again and again when we talk to voters. And, as you may know, it is all over the Internet.

And it’s something of a theme that Senators Clinton and McCain’s advisers agree could give you a major vulnerability if you’re the candidate in November.

How do you convince Democrats that this would not be a vulnerability?

OBAMA: Well, look, I revere the American flag. And I would not be running for president if I did not revere this country.

….

And let me just make one last point on this issue of the flag pin. As you’ve noted, I wore one yesterday when a veteran handed it to me, who himself was disabled and works on behalf of disabled veterans.

I have never said that I don’t wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins. This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with and, once again, distracts us from what should be my job when I’m commander-in-chief, which is going to be figuring out how we get our troops out of Iraq and how we actually make our economy better for the American people.

Not much more that I can add to that. The point is that the American public, driven by their obsession with reality television and meaningless issues, such a flag pins, are missing the point of why this is such an important election to our country and the rest of the world, and that is to make our country a good neighbor again, put us back on the economical map, and stop bullying the rest of the world with power that we don’t have. Just to reiterate, Obama said, “This is the kind of manufactured issue that our politics has become obsessed with.” The truth is that politics has not become obsessed with flag pins, it is the American people that has become obsessed with these things. It is as if they don’t even care that hundreds of thousands of innocent people are dying in Iraq, that our government is squandering our hard fought tax dollars on frivolous and manufactured conflicts in the middle east for political and monetary gain, that our country’s reputation as a world power has been dropped in the dirt, and that our economy is in the sharpest decline it has seen since the great depression. Of course, in light of all of these issues, the clear and most important issue is whether or not Senator Obama chooses to wear a flag pin, obviously. If he loses the democratic nomination because he doesn’t wear a flag pin, I’m going to throw up in your shoe, then move out of this bass-ackwards country.

The next, and possibly stranger pattern that has emerged with this presidential race is the fact that the religious leaders who have endorsed the candidates have each shown themselves to have the moral character of a pile of crap, or at least, that’s what the media would lead us to believe. By now, everyone knows the name of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years. Obama recently had to speak out carefully against the inflammatory remarks made by Rev. Wright in order to protect his reputation. Interestingly, the issue at point with Rev. Wright is whether or not he is a patriot (which goes straight back to Obama and the Flag pin that he doesn’t wear, which clearly makes him non-patriotic) and whether or not he is racist. Wright has issued many “inflammatory” statements in sermons over the last few years that defiantly put the U.S. government in the firing line for the condition of our citizens, and a few disasters that have happened in our country, like 9/11. He said, “that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism” (quoted from abcnews). I can see how much of the U.S. population would be offended by the implication of those remarks, but I actually happen to agree with them. If we had been good neighbors instead of big bullies, 9/11 might never have happened. However, the manner in which the comments were delivered during that, and other sermons, leaves an air of bitterness and racism hanging over us. Other parts of other sermons lay claim that the United States’ black citizens are both under represented and subject to inequality by our government’s actions and that the feeling from the days of slavery are still strong. I’m not sure what to make of this. I, personally, am the least racist person you will ever meet. I tend to see the character of a person before I see the color of his skin or the accent in his voice. The fact the most of my generation feels that way tells me that there’s probably not a ton of racism left in the mainstream social sect of our country, but I may be sampling from a biased group. For sure, middle America, the “Bush Camp,” tend to be more on the racist side of things, or at least lack tolerance (not only of blacks, but gays, arabs, women, basically anything not a white trash, Bud drinking man). The other side of this coin is that many African Americans feel under represented in the US, and because of that end up in a state of squalor and crime. They take up arms against each other and their fellow Americans because they feel like they are owed something, thus furthering the self-destructive stereotype that is given to them. I’m usually not one to preach conformity, but both sides of this issue need to meet in the middle. Angry African Americans need to drop their guns, get back in school, and work hard to show the less tolerant side of society that they are indeed not what the stereotype makes them out to be. At the same time, the rest of America needs to see that these people have just as much potential as any other person in this country and that they need to be given a chance to show their brilliance. As is true in population genetics, diversity leads to a stronger, more vigorous society.

OK, I digressed a little. My point is that Rev. Wright may not be far off in the point of his sermons, which speaks to the magnitude of change that needs to happen in our country, but he could stand to tone down the racist implications in his sermons so that more people will actually hear his message, rather than turning a deaf ear in shame. Now, should Obama be slammed for the remarks of someone that has endorsed his presidential campaign? I don’t think so. Sure, you’re generally judged by the company that you keep, since the type of people that you associate with speaks volumes to your moral character. But, before you judge, make sure you meet all of a person’s associates before making your judgment. Everyone knows and is friends with someone with questionable moral fiber, don’t deny it.

My last example of religious leaders gone awry is a pastor who has endorsed Senator McCain, Pastor John Hagee. Now, this guy is truly a tool. Hagee has come under fire for some of his views, most notably that he may carry strong anti-semitic beliefs. In a late 1990’s sermon, Hagee made the following statements:

John Hagee, the controversial evangelical leader and endorser of Sen. John McCain, argued in a late 1990s sermon that the Nazis had operated on God’s behalf to chase the Jews from Europe and shepherd them to Palestine. According to the Reverend, Adolph Hitler was a “hunter,” sent by God, who was tasked with expediting God’s will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.

Going in and out of biblical verse, Hagee preached: “‘And they the hunters should hunt them,’ that will be the Jews. ‘From every mountain and from every hill and from out of the holes of the rocks.’ If that doesn’t describe what Hitler did in the holocaust you can’t see that.”

He goes on: “Theodore Herzl is the father of Zionism. He was a Jew who at the turn of the 19th century said, this land is our land, God wants us to live there. So he went to the Jews of Europe and said ‘I want you to come and join me in the land of Israel.’ So few went that Hertzel went into depression. Those who came founded Israel; those who did not went through the hell of the holocaust.

“Then god sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. And the Bible says — Jeremiah writing — ‘They shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the holes of the rocks,’ meaning there’s no place to hide. And that might be offensive to some people but don’t let your heart be offended. I didn’t write it, Jeremiah wrote it. It was the truth and it is the truth. How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said my top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.”

(quoted from the Huffington Post)

So, he basically believes that the Holocaust was God’s work and that Jews should all be corralled into a small country the size of Vancouver Island or die in an oven. This is an interesting view for someone who, in his most fundamental religious beliefs, has “denounced replacement theology, believing that chapters 9-11 of the book of Romans teach that the Jews have continuing favor with God by the election of grace, and as a people of the covenant do not require belief in Jesus Christ for their salvation. He believes the Bible commands Christians to support Israel and the Jewish people, even though he has made anti-semitic remarks against Jews.” (Wikipedia)

So, I’m not sure what to make of this guy. I saw an interview with him while I was in San Antonio a few months ago, and it was really weird. He is just one of those people that when you watch him, just wreaks of evil. You get the impression that he’d do nearly anything to further his own station in life. That being said, once again, all we know of this guy is what the media portrays him to be. But, I get a bad feeling about him and about John McCain in general.

So, it looks like the original edict in the Constitution of the United States, that there should be a separation between church and state, is well founded and remains true today. As of late, far too much emphasis on religion has come into the forefront with political decisions, law making, policy making, and foreign affairs. The politicians tout religious piety to their constituents for one reason, to get votes so that they can be re-elected. The truth is that, no matter who your favorite politician is or to which party she belongs, they are likely morally ambiguous at best. The nature of politics is grounded in deceit, and is founded in law, which is contrived at best (how many truly honest lawyers do you know). Religion is from the other side of the fence and is supposed to be grounded in moral discipline and philanthropy, but is also subject to extreme corruption. My point in all of this, get as much real information as you can before deciding on your candidate. Try to get non media-spun data and judge the moral character and leadership capabilities of your candidate. Only then will get select the right one, and only then can we replace the quagmire that our government has become with a competent group of people capable of extricating us from our quickly sinking ship.

Think before you vote.

/that is all

Sasha had her second doctors appointment today, one month after her first. The prognosis? Everything is perfect. She has gained 1lb, 12oz since the last appointment, putting her at 8lbs, 13oz and she has grown two inches to 21.5in. The doctor said that puts her right where she needs to be, gaining about 1oz/day. Man, if I gained 1oz per day, I’d weigh 6.2 tons right now. Good thing we stop gaining at that rate. Sasha also got her first round of booster shots today (which she apparently didn’t like very much, but who does), and the rash on her face and neck was confirmed to be baby acne and should start clearing up soon.

So, all is well, Rachel was very happy that everything was normal and so am I. Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!