Song Lyric For The Day

Here comes another song about Mexico
I just can't help myself
I lost my old lady
Got my lures
Got my bobbers
Now I'm gonna go
Got off in the wrong direction
Found a hooker and lost my erection
So I had to lie
In the letter to the boys back home


The Refreshments

One of my favorite bands, Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy is a must own album. 12 tracks of the 12 tracks are wicked pissah tunes. Upbeat twangy riffs and toe-tapping drums with dark sarcastic lyrics . . . exactly my style.

Google Maps Street View

Saw this cool thing that Google is previewing . . . Street View


In some areas, like San Francisco and NYC when you're searching google maps you have the option that I circled on the screenshot. You click on that and streets that you can view are highlighted in blue.



On the screen there's a little person cursor. You can click and drag it anywhere tht there's a blue street. Wherever it lands you get a full 360 degree rotatable, zoomable view of the street like I did above for Washington Square in NYC.

Pretty damn cool.

http://maps.google.com/maps

Vehicles and Death

It's funny to observe different peoples' perspectives on military equipment. Consider a convoy loaded with 50 or so HMMVs; I usually think of taxpayer dollars and why do we need so many HMMVs while they're cutting teachers from my daughters elementary school. But most people are impressed and say "oh cool, look at that", kinda like the people who watch airshows thinking how cool it would be to fly a jet at 500mph 6 inches from the next plane. Military equipment can be quite impressive when collected in large quantities or when viewed from a civilian perspective, most people say "cool." Most people probably know the real purpose of tanks and HMMVs and fighter jets. I doubt most are ever really struck with the reality of what that equipment does to people on the receiving end of its intended use. Even fewer are faced with what the reality of what happens when that equipment (and the people in it) is on the receiving end of whatever equipment the opposing team is using.

So today as I was driving we crossed paths with a convoy and a pretty long one at that. Nobody was saying "cool." I actually had a patriotic moment which is a bit unusual for me. There were probably 2 dozen flat beds with all manner of military equipment, mostly tanks and HMMVs. These were not shiny and new however. Some stuff just really needed serious maintenance. Maybe they rolled the HMMV or locals slashed the tires and broke the mirrors off, stuff like that. But more than half of the equipment had been blown up, burnt out or otherwise destroyed. There were more than a handful of vehicles that there is no way the people driving them made it out with all their limbs. Some that I'm sure nobody made it out of alive.

Not really sure where Im heading with this post but its been bothering me for a few hours. I imagine those tanks and HMMVs will appear in my dreams tonight. I wish I could take pictures of this stuff, a convoy of blown up tanks and HMMVs elicits quite a different emotion than a yard full of brand new ones.

Copying the Jews

The Kuwaitis are considering changing their weekend to Friday-Saturday. Currently the weekend is Thursday-Friday. Friday is the Islamic holy day. Other countries in the region have switched to the Fri-Sat weekend to match the business schedules of the rest of the world and so Kuwait is considering the same. Banks here already do it. Early in May the Cabinet was considering the change and just after I arrived the papers announced that the Cabinet had decided to go ahead with the change.

The Parliament however intends to review the idea because there is some opposition. Apparently, according to the two articles I read in the paper, there is concern that Kuwait is compromising its Islamic values. A legitimate concern in my opinion.

Unfortunately any credibility the opposition had was lost when they were quoted as basing their opposition also on not wanting to "copy the Jews."

I wish I had saved the newspaper stories because searching the papers online there is of course no mention of "copying the jews". Imagine if the Boston Globe ever published something like that.

Year #38 - Enshala

I've been working on this post for almost a month now and Im at the point of "fuck it, here it is" . . .

Starting two years ago around this time, in the grand tradition of my dear dead friend Bob, I decided I was going to do the somewhat trendy “annual letter to my friends.” My 36^th year on this planet, 2004/2005, had been a very interesting and bizarre one (those of you who heard the stories of the marine aquarium conference fiasco might agree) and spurred me into action. However, as with most things of that nature in my life I never completely finished it and then realized it wasn’t necessarily something I wanted the world to know.

It wasn't easy jumping on the “memoir bandwagon.” I had a hard time typing out my thoughts at first, but once I got over the concept of talking to a keyboard I found I could go on endlessly. Those of you who really know me know that I’m very quiet and reserved, unless I trust you, at which point I turn into a blathering idiot spouting off endless detail about things you really didn’t care to know. So, although spectacularly cathartic for me personally, publishing the whole thing to the internet just never happened.

So now I sit here a month after the completion of my 38^th year reviewing a similar annual account of my life.

Suffice to say that year 38 gets mixed reviews. It started off in Kuwait which Maki called a mid-life crisis of sorts. She was thankful however that mine didn’t involve Harley’s or mistresses. Really I think Kuwait was part of coping with Bob’s death and the resulting feeling that I wasn’t doing something more meaningful with my life. (hehe, that’s kinda the definition of mid-life crisis I suppose so maybe Maki was right).

In the end I failed myself this year on many counts. Many times I failed to speak up when I knew I should, failed to make the best of bad situations, failed to move on from the past. But I also succeeded at all of those same things in many other respects. I have a better appreciation for my family and friends and what is important to me about them. The detailed account of this past year has alot about me that I don't care to expose to the world. I also would probably be fired for publishing some of the other stuff in there. So instead I'll sum up the year with these few bits of "no shit Sherlock" wisdom that somehow I keep learning over and over again although each time with a new twist.

• “Do what’s good for you or you’re not good for anybody”

• Always go with your gut instinct even if that means looking like an asshole.

• Speak up immediately, if you delay the message is lost

• “Sometimes family are the ones you choose”