Squirrel Repellant

Sweet! I found for only $99 I can buy "fox urine granules" gauanteed to keep them damn squirrels away.

Word to that! Send me two!

I wonder how they make these? Trap a bunch of foxes and tie little baggies to their backends? Then freeze dry 'em?

Free but not Free

Remember the "Free Kevin" campaign? Kevin Mitnick was one of the first examples made by the federal government for "hacking" into computer systems. Well, Kevin spent 5 years in prison (4 1/2 BEFORE a trial) and has been out for 8 years but is still being harrassed.

On a same but different note, another Kevin also is being claimed as injustly being held by our federal government.

Oh, and by the way... If you've ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you're guilty of a federal felony.

People that Hate Squirrels

I have some backwoods country folk friends that hate squirrels. They HATE, HATE, HATE squirrels. If you say the word "squirrel" around any of the family they will immediately let out a barrage of profanities about "tree rats", "varmints", and a series of why-it-is-good-to-kill-anything-that-might-interfere-with-your-garden-or-attic lectures.

I mean these people are obsessed. It is very comical. When I hear a gunshot in the neighborhood I assume it is one of them killing a squirrel.

The other day I heard the dad chewing out the son for shooting a squirrel and not even throwing the carcass over the fence. The son apologized and promised to not leave it lying in the garden next time.

Actually, I'm surprised he threw the carcass away at all, because I know this young man likes to eat dead squirrel. I've shot and ate squirrels a bunch in my younger days.

So I culled a few facts from the web.

There does exist at least one Squirrel hatred group.

Squirrels are considered one of the 10 most intelligent animals on the planet.

Squirrels live in symbiosis with oak trees and are most responsible for their successful propagation across North America.

Squirrel brains are good to eat with scrambled eggs for breakfast. (According to many observations made by Adena watching her grandparents in early Alabama mornings.)

Personally, I like squirrels. I think they are cute and playful. One scraggly-tailed one my wife has named Alvin came up to me this morning and barked at me all sassy like - till my dogs came and chased him away.

Squirrels are cool. Spread the word.

Loss of Desire, Loss of Truth, Loss of Both

Sitting in a high school psychology class as a kid once, after I replied to the teacher that I indeed could tell when people lied or told the truth, I got nearly laughed out of the room.

Certain people can detect lying. I developed a certain amount of this skill growing up. Interestingly enough, many people learned this perceptibility as a child growing up in families where discerning the truth felt essential.

Nowadays, I'm not so sure I ever was good at detecting lies or truths. Worse - I don't even care. Desire for truth itself has faded.

I may be molting in the squeeze between cynicism and despair.

Is this what getting old is about?

Desire. Let's pick a basic one. Sex. All my life sex was something that had to be controlled, minimized, and suppressed. Except in marriage where it's nice, but controlled still in a somewhat different way.

Now I find after years of suppressing desires themselves, these desires are respondinging. They are fading. I'd be happy to have some desires.

Food doesn't appeal to me. I have no passionate hobbies. Everything is pretty much boring. Drinking and catching a buzz has gotten old - again. I don't even desire to play music much anymore. I've about given up on it. Is this what growing old is like? Or is this just my old friend Mr. Depression cementing his roots into my arteries?

Don't know.

But I do know this (tip-o-hat to Caveman Lawyer) - I don't like this feeling of getting old.

Truth? Love? Sex? ... Eat? drink? And be merry?

My Grandfather often would quote to me as a child the whole last chapter of Ecclesiastes in the Bible. There is a warning there of years to come when a person "has no pleasure" and when "desires fade away." That part of the quote used to puzzle me. I just couldn't fathom it.

I feel it now.

I stand face to face in a doorway to the last phases of my life.

It looks like big, dark and empty.

I don't want to go in.

(But of course, I just can't stand here looking stupid either.)

Joy

Well, yes, I am a grandfather now. And 50 years old. This boy is cute as a button though. He's sharp and intense like his father too. Adena and I were blessed enough to go to Prague and visit this little "real McCoy" and his parents. I'll admit, he is the highlight of my affections for now, and the most endearing thing I've come across since the birth of my own children.



I haven't fully decided yet how this all affects me other than the realization somewhat of the adage "it's NOT about me". His presence still causes a lot of reflection on my part - a person who is unhealthily over-reflective anyway perhaps. Having a whole 'nother generation forward looking at you in face, cause one at least to wonder about how well they have done so far in preparing the whole this child will enter into. I do have my own regrets in life. Now they lurk about in my mind as little demons hoping to haunt me through all the "possibilities" that could have been awaiting this young child.



However, I didn't make the world, I'm just living in it. Vinnie will have to face all the same problems and pains we all do. Hopefully, he can find the joys also, and they will outweigh the costs.



Joy. That must be the measure of successful living. How much joy have I encountered, encouraged, and invoked in others. Joy. If I can find just a little of that daily, and look back and find it as an after-flow trailing through my life - then I will come out in the balance.



For now, a little person follows behind me two generations back. His name is Vincent Andrew Sanders. He is a joy - to me. My prayer is for an abundance of joy to follow him through life.

For more pictures of Vinnie you can dig through an assortment that I and Alena have each posted for public viewing.

Enjoy.

You can call me Vinny

Well, yeah, I am pretty cute huh?

After Performance Wilmeth Interview

I was lucky enough to get an interview with beach bum Rick Wilmeth and his lovely singer wife after they mangled the beautiful John Prine song at Rick's retirement party. Rick shares his secret to success.

Terms I Am Sick of Hearing

Terms at the office I've really gotten sick of hearing:

"Deep-Dive" - supposedly means when someone is really going to spend some time getting into the technical aspects of a certain problem. Translates better as "I don't know. I'd have to get someone else to figure that out." Sometimes this term is used to put off non-technical people vaguely meaning "I don't care to try and explain it to you."

"Push-Back" - supposedly a high level term for when one department is requested to do something from another department and they have reason not to or require clarity. Used a lot when the requestor doesn't understand what he's asking for in the first place.

"Churn" - Emails, phone calls and conversations back and forth engaging many higly paid people to accomplish nothing other than "feeling" like they've accomplished something. Used reluctently buy often by the few people involved in the churn that actually could be accomplishing something.

Vincent Andrew Sanders

Rick Wilmeth's Retirement Party - Jamaica Beach

To know them is to love them.

My two favorite people sang John Prine's white trash love song and did a pretty good job too considering they'd been drinking tequila all day plus the normal one case of Busch beer for breakfast. It took me all afternoon to catch up with him.

Happy "rest of your life" Rick! Love you. (you bum)

Think. Simplify.

Death by PowerPoint

From: thecroaker, 10 months ago

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Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.


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Sam Hall

I was doing some quick research on the origins of the song "Sam Hall" that Johnny Cash recorded on his 2002 CASH cd.

Ask me sometime when you come by and I'll try and sing you this song about a man cursing the crowd while he's about the hung from the gallows. I've been practicing. :)

I stumbled upon this text written of a slave turned free after forty-seven years who's name was also Sam Hall. It's a very interesting, authentic and intense read. (Wow, I just described my personal ideals)

Poetry

The first poem I ever learned:

here I sit

all broken-hearted

tried to shit

but only farted

Facinated by this little diddly that I read on the inside wall of some truck-stop stall as a kid. Stuck in my mind so elequoently. I still think it's a near perfect poem. It's pretty much the only poem I could ever quote.

Remember those days when scratchings, nasty drawings and phone numbers were scrawled all over the stall walls? Those were fun days. And then you could come out to wash your hands and gawk at the little dirty machines promising sexual satisfaction for her that only cost like $.50? I always kind of wondered what little things were in there for only two quarters.

I was always curious to call one of those phone numbers and see if anybody really answered, too. I pretty much figured it was all a scam though and didn't want to waste the money or take the chance of making a call. I was always curious though. It was fun being curious and facinated about what things might lie beyond these numbers and machines and in the hearts and activities of the people who did these things.

I usually didn't stick around in these bathrooms too long. They were always kind of scary and dirty.

Now-a-days in big cubicle-ridden corporate professional America, there are no scrawlings on the bathroom walls. At least not here at my work. Grown men go into these stalls and fart big and loud and make disgusting sounds and nobody there snickers or laughs or says a thing. We all quickly do our business, wash our hands, and quickly come and go with very sober faces.

One of these days I'm going to shout out to one of these stall members, "Hey, keep it down in there will ya!?"

Then I'll have to hold my snicker as I rush back to my cubicle to hide.

13 Things I've Found to be True

1. What you decided at 10 years of age is pretty much who you are now.
2. Beauty is more important than truth.
3. All the hard questions can be answered by looking at the context of the question.
4. Better to listen than to speak.
5. Those concerned about the existence of God are on the left and right sprectrums of the bell curve of wealth - those without are hoping for good to prevail, those WITH have the time and freedom to wonder is Good prevails, and those in the middle are struggling in the balance (thereby consumed by the world around them.) (not REAL sure about this one either)
6. If you spill your drink, you've already drunk enough.
7. If you walk sideways, you know you are drunk.
8. The purpose of life is to have as much sustainable joy/fun as possible. (? - This one I'm not sure about.)
9. Its ok to cuss if no one's around to hear you.
10. Everything that lives fights to survive - even hummingbirds.
11. There is no good and evil outside of the context in which it is discussed.
12. The context above is usually time or the subjectivity of the experience.
13. To get a cramp out of your leg calf, get out of bed, stand on that leg and force your heel to the ground. It will ease.

Know What You Mow - Hill Country Grasses

The last couple of years I've been learning my hill country grasses. As I've been selectively taking out my cedars, I've curiously seen several bunch grasses sneaking up in these clearings. I resisted the temptation last year to mow these down. Believe me it was not easy. I spent most my life in suburbia and learned to mow, trim, and edge the front and back yards neatly and squarely like my suburbanite peer pressuring neighbors.


After a while these fresh grasses coming up got pretty tall and a bit weedy looking to my culturally derived suburban tastes. I let them grow anyway - to the slight dismay of my wife. During these summer months I had been learning about the four great prairie grasses. You know - the ones that the pioneers said covered the buffalo prairies as far as the eye could see? The grasses that stood as tall as the covered wagons such as Little Bluestem, Big Bluestem, Switchgrass, and Canadian Rye? I imagined these beautiful swaying waves of grain someday being a part of my own little five acre hill country spread. This was when I went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center native plant sale and bought a several pots of Little Bluestem.


I planted these grasses throughout my property and nourished and watered them hoping they'd take hold. While these potted grasses were being babied these other natural grasses that I was watching grow were getting taller and taller in lots of places throughout where I had cleared the cedar. I never learned what kind of grasses they were till late fall when it dawned on me that these were all Little Bluestems! The same grasses I had planted. I was over-joyed as I walked about touching and admiring these native gifts of nature that had been laying dormant in seed for years waiting for me to give them the opportunity to grow. I also found some Big Bluestem that came up that by the end of the year stood over six feet tall!


The Hays County Master's Naturalist class of 2008 did a site evalutation on my property this week and pointed out to me several other grasses I didn't know were growing on my property, including beautiful Switchgrass, Eastern Gama, and Silver Bluestem.


Today as I drove my borrowed John Deere riding lawn mower over my bottom land property I had to stop and start and go in reverse a bunch and sway and drive this way and that to avoid all these interesting clumps of grasses - that I now what to give a chance to grow so I can see what they turn out to be. Riding mowers don't seem adept to dart and dodge individual clusters of grasses. They're meant to go straight and cut - everything! It was harder than if I had been cutting in squared right-angles. But I realized nature just isn't very straight nor square. It is complex and varied like a crystal or a river or a spider web. By the time I was done, my wife thought I had forgotten how to mow. I said, with a sheepish smug look, "No, I did it that way on purpose."


Now that I know what it is that I am mowing, I am more more particular about what I slice with my mechanical toy wonder. I've come to enjoy the mix and match of grasses that are now growing everywhere on my property. It takes work, but I'm developing a taste for these prairie grasses that give me just a little hint of those great tall prairies that my forefathers experienced. I think even my wife is enjoying them too.

Manage the Noise

Team:

In response to the boss's request for tips to help us communicate thru email better, I Googled and searched the Net but couldn’t find anything beyond the common sense “1.) Be Concise 2.) Don’t Spam 3.) Spell correctly” kind of article. So I wrote my own and would enjoy hearing any tips that you all might have.

Manage the Noise: Conciseness in emails


When writing emails:

· Do not “cc” someone without taking the time to summarize and say WHY they are “cc” ‘d. (If you can’t at least do that, how can you expect them to take the time to read it?)

· Never say everything that comes to mind

· First ask, "What is the bottom line that I want this person to hear from me?" (If you can't phrase the bottom-line concisely (1 sentence), then the thought is not clear in your own mind. Make it clear to yourself first.)

· Then ask "What do I expect him/her to do with it?" (If this question leads to the answer "nothing" then you shouldn't really be talking.)

· If you need to brainstorm and flesh out ideas to get clarification, then call that out so other person knows that this is "bouncing back and forth" time.

· When you are trying to get clarity for yourself, you are consuming someone else's time and brain power. Do your homework first and then ask for help.

· Prioritize your thoughts for the person you are talking to. (Don't make small things sound big, and big things sound small.)



When reading emails:

· Help your speaker get to the essence of the idea and the decision that has to be made.

· Never fear missing some minutiae. We live in an age of over-information. If it’s important, it will come back to you.

· Accept your responsibility to control your own time.

· It is not rude to politely say, "I'm sorry, I don't have time for this right now." (Even in an email reply. It is rude to let the other person assume that you've heard them.)

Talking to myself - define the problem

Taking my own advise and talking to myself, I had a dialogue the other day and tried to hone in on step 1 of solving any problem - Definine the Problem. The subject was global corporate control of the onslaught of data and how to deal with it from an architectural standpoint. (I am a data architect by trade and nature.)

Thus:

(disclaimer: excuse me if it sounds like gibberish. it may be)

**** break snippet begins here ******


define the problem

all data is in a RDBMS - meaning its splayed out everywhere for efficiency and
speed of collection the tools for data manipulation is everywhere - the
knowledge, the Microsoft products (from Excel to SQL Server), open source, the
network itself, ubiquity of computers)people will never cease from digging,
turning, striving to understand data from unique perspectives

so what's the problem?

conflicting data numbers

is that so bad?

yes. numbers need to be definitive

even if there was an "official" set of numbers, anyone with "un-official" numbers can question it - causing churn, justification, backtracking, proving numbers, etc. And some people will be motivated by instinct to do just this.

a possible answer is the evolution of simplicity through complete
transparencythat means: instead of trying to hide complexity through middle-tier
software and access to raw data elimination, REVEAL the complexity (open source
code) and make it open and alterable and viewable by those that CAN and those
that CAN'T understand it.

What's this do?

It allows second-guessing to be done at the code level specifically
questioning
logic instead of the fruit of logic.

It eliminates churn driven second-guessing by those unable to understand
the complexity of the code itself.

but it doesn't dissolve the conflicting numbers issue... it only puts a handle on it at best.

another possible solution would be to allow the reporters of numbers to compete
and defend ala Capitalism or a Darwinian eco-system. the consumers of the data
will choose nourishing or diminishing the data providers into success or
extinction naturally - the best will survive and rise to the top.

that solution is naturally rejected because of the fear of the loss of control it produces.

this fear could possibly be mitigated by an "open-source" attitude management
(e.g., Wikipedia)

bottom line is that open information produces a certain amount of argument and
chaos (ala science itself)

Is it worth trying to eliminate this naturally propagated discussion with
Millions of $$ of new software, resources, and jobs?

..comes down again to a cost/benefit ratio.

That’s the final question.

Is it worth it? What do we get for what we pay for? (now the mystery of economy slips in and the circulation of the dollar itself.)

So again. What is the real problem? And What is the cost of that problem?

the problem is conflicting data.

the cost of that problem is churn and waste of money and time. but how much? can it be quantified?

difficult to do.

guesstimate twice the amount of people and time needed to do the job. (incidentally, the 2nd half of people that would be "cut" will not easily give up their purposes or jobs.)

What's the expense of fixing this assuming it can be fixed?

About 15 million $ for one middle-tier software package and 7 million $ for another middle-tier software package. Plus however many new people hired with invested time to implement, herald and rollout.

I'd guesstimate about the same about of people to implement, retrain, and hire
to do what jobs being eliminated. So in reality this is just a shift of skills
and jobs and peoples.

So if everything evens out, then the cost is
however much $ was sent out to software companies for product itself. (i.e. 15 +
7 = $22 million)

Will it solve the problem?

mostly not. because churn and questioning will still ensue due to the nature of
the people and the tools available and ubiquitous.

So cost/benefit ratio is $22M/$0

What about the benefit of the newer potentially robust views of software that will now be available that wasn't before, enabling better management.?

I'd have to say that the numbers were mostly already there before mid-tier
software and it will probably not be used more or less by management. ROI still
= $0.

So do we give up? (second question)

No.

What do we do?

Implement RAW DATA retrieval abilities across the board at a middle management
level through rollup into mart table pivots by an official group (Reporting
Services whether custom SQL, Business Objects, or Merced, etc.) so RAW data is
available back downwards to individual level generators (agents themselves,
their managers, and sites).

And use SAME RAW DATA rollups to report upwards to executive management
levels -

ALL WHILE KEEPING PULL CODE COMPLETELY ACCESSIBLE AND VIEWABLE.

Key points being that it must be RAW and TRANSPARENTLY GENERATED. (all 3 solutions tend to NOT be.)

Rocky Edge Site Visit

I'm studying for a Master's Naturalist certification and in the course of events we will be doing a site visit here on the "Rocky Edge".

The description in the site visit handout is as below. --hey, It's interesting to me. [shrug] :)

Description:

Mitch and his wife Adena live on a 5-acre tract on a sandy point of the Blanco River. The entrance to the property is the highest point on the land; the house sits mid-level and overlooks the sandy bottomland below. Although the bottomland has deep sandy soil, the soil at the top is sparse and rocks protrude.

Mitch's interest is in encouraging as diverse a habitat as possible for wildlife and future family generations. His concerns include river bank/erosion control, bottomland mowing decisions, and upland cedar and prairie grass management. The abundance of rock at the entrance provided all the material for the rock wall. There may be a cave under some of the large, hollow-sounding rocks.

He would also like to promote wildlife habitat and has noticed turkeys, porcupines, and rock squirrels on property. He has reported a number of bird species, including Painted Buntings, Nashville Warblers, Canyon/Rock/Carolina Wrens, and Green/Belted Kingfishers. Twenty-three native grasses and four oak species have been identified.

The Sanders’ property is a good example of what decisions need to be made ecologically to develop a smaller piece of land.

Happy Mother's Day

Wife was up puking all night. Our friend brought her dog over and my wife watched it chase down and murder our old cat that we've had for 19 years. I buried it. There was a lot of bawling, blaming, and squalling.

Another friend calls me yesterday saying they are staking out with the cops the home of a mutual friend of ours (J) who text messaged us all saying he's got a rifle in the other room - threatening to kill himself. I think he's off his meds again.

I got stood up for a movie date by my two friends. (They bought Adena flowers - that was really nice.) Add to this the memories of the death of our baby daughter this time of year (Mother's day - 24 years ago) and I call my mom and wish her a happy mother's day but end up being chided for not going to church that morning. (I was up most the night.)

I feel guilty, but I'm tired already so it doesn't matter much. Life is like that, huh?

Happy Mother's Day all!

Blanco Brethren have 1st Annual 3-day Camp-Shin-ding-Thing

Blanco Brethren (formerly known as the "Ancient Society of Sacred Assholes") has concluded their 1st Annual Camping celebration for men. Camp-Shin-ding-Thing seems destined to be a continual April 20th weekend event.

From most rumours up and down the valley volume was sufficient to keep away some of the werewolfs, all of the women, and other hounddogs and sane folks.

A common chant of "Chee! Chee!" perplexed most of the uninitiated and between some of the tears and beers and expressed fears and tobacco most of the brethren survived - somehow in tact.

They may not be the better off for it all, but they sure as hell ain't any the worse.