Travels and Thoughts

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WEEK 40 2006

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Saturday 7 October 2006

Saturday - not feeling too good. I pretty much took the day off, and hope to get down to the boat tomorrow.

I need to travel down there and pay the brightwork guy for his work. I've a couple of smallish tasks to accomplish: empty the holding tank, fill the diesel tank, and maybe do a bit of sailing. I now have a rule: if I accomplish just one thing per trip, then I'm doing OK.

We'll see.

Friday 6 October 2006

Friday - meetings and work. It's getting harder to get anything actually done at work.

I didn't actually go to a Battlestar Galactica party. In fact I missed the first episode - but it should be on TIVO!

Thursday 5 October 2006

Thursday - I was thinking about the Kelo problem. One possible solution might be to require a popular vote to condemn properties, and perhaps require the passing vote to be a super majority at that. California has an initiative system, maybe that might be a way to do an end run around the politicians and their phony solutions. We could specifically exclude things like eminent domain for roads, canals, bridge right of ways, but force votes for the more unusual things. I imagine politicians would then get 'creative' in the definition of roads, bridges, and canals - but that's what the courts are (supposedly) for. It would be, at the least, another stumbling block.

Oh, dear god, I am tempted. Is there no hope for me? Will I always be such a geek?

Wednesday 4 October 2006

Wednesday - I ran across the following article, Teams From as Far As Europe to Compete in Space Elevator Games .

What I particularly liked was the graphic that went with the article:

Apparently the European Teams are coming by dirigible...

Heading north on Friday I stopped at a friends' place in Tehachapi. We talked a bit, I admired their boy - a real pistol at about a year of age - and was infected. By Abba. They've a large, rear projection teevee in one wall, built in (and thus left behind) by the previous owners. And it was playing old Abba music videos. Ackkk. Waterloo in particular....

So, still humming it on Sunday, I tried that old folk remedy: I told my siblings about it and even hummed a few bars of Waterloo. They cried out in dismay and tried to cover their ears - too late! A couple of hours later I heard my brother humming it. My sister has built up some resistance - the only near ugly moment of the day came when she asserted that the Mama's & Papa's were better vocalists.

Sadly the remedy did not work, as I'm still humming it. So much for folk pop medicine

Tuesday 3 October 2006

Tuesday - a long day. Got up at 4:30 am, got home at 7:30 pm. Two flights, both successful.

I spent nearly two hours sitting in my car while the Air Force played security war games with the commuter traffic on their way home. They are about as serious and about as effective as the TSA, and enjoy tormenting their hapless victims just as much.

Monday 2 October 2006

Monday - back on the road, heading south. There is a flight on Tuesday, early, so I have to be back.

Book #42, finished on the road, was Adams vs Jefferson, The Tumultuous Election of 1800. It was interesting, getting a bit more into the divisions that split the 'Founders' once the American Revolution was completed.

I think it was in 'Founding Brothers' that the author pointed out that there was at this time more than just a single concept of liberty in play - there were several, ranging from a revolutionary and near anarchic Francophilic to an only slightly removed from the british system. In 1796 and in 1800, the first contested elections (Washington being a shoo-in for the first two elections of 1788 and 1792) Adams and Jefferson competed. Adams represented (supposedly) the British influence, and Jefferson (supposedly) the French. In reality both wanted to keep those warring powers at bay, but neither trusted the other by the time of the elections and their respective media outlets hyped the differences and disagreements.

Essentially Jefferson represented a more egalitarian mode of thought than Adams, and was for a smaller and less powerful government. Adams was the candidate of the Federalists, favoring a centralized and, relative to the Democratic Republican party of Jefferson, powerful government. (But still only a pale shadow of the current colossus - Adams would be horrified by the power and reach of today's government). Adams won the first election, but Jefferson won the second, with the DR's staying in power afterwards for decades.

It was a dirty election, and Adams and Jefferson were estranged for years afterwards. The author is perhaps a bit too fond of Jefferson and dismissive of his faults (paying from his own pocket for the vilest of lies and slanders to be printed), and a bit too intolerant of Adams faults (for disowning his drunken son - though any parent who has had to deal with an adult addict can understand his state of mind). James Hamilton and Aaron Burr are portrayed as power mad schemers.

Sunday 1 October 2006

Sunday - we've been watching some baseball and football. Essentially I am funding my Roth IRA by betting against my father - a no-fail "system" so far.

It was good to see the 'Niners, even though they essentially sucked. I don't feel so bad, missing their games now. I made twenty five cents on the Browns, so that was good.

A brother and sister came over, so we had a nice dinner together.

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Photo Notes: Your blogger, taking a well earned rest.

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