Herveus rambles
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "herveus" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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07:01 am
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The Daily Tweet (Rockin' Robin!)
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06:50 pm
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How low can Dan Snyder go?
Pretty low. We may not have yet found the bottom.
The Washington Redskins suck. Big time. They've given up wins to three sucky teams that they should have beaten handily. They can't score points. They have no fire in their bellies.
You'd think that the coach might get fired. That's not what's happening. Jim Zorn is under contract for at least another year, owed something like $3 million. If Dan Snyder, filthy rich owner of the most profitable and second most valuable NFL team, is so cheap that he is trying to make the working conditions so horrible that Zorn will quit, rather than fire him and pay off the contract. Not that firing the coach is going to fix what is fundamentally broken.
Dan Snyder has no idea how to *own* a football team. Neither does he know how to *run* a football operation. He has a "Vice President of Football Operations" (formerly "General Manager") who is his patsy. Vinny Cerrato shows no evidence that he knows how to pick talent, identify needs, and fill them. He enables Dan Snyder to play at owning a team. How else do you explain the persistent failure to draft players to address needs (such as an offensive line), the repeated changes of offensive system without providing the kind of personnel needed to execute same, and the apparent obsession with picking up marquis at random.
To be successful on the field, Snyder needs a Charlie Casserly. The only thing he should be doing is signing the checks. Hire someone who knows the business and let them run it. Until he buys that clue, the Foreskins will be the laughingstock of the NFL. There were 10,000 empty seats at the game Sunday. Ten thousand! That's unheard of. It's shameful.
Dan Snyder is trying to displace Peter Angelos from the pedestal of slimiest major sports team owner. It's not easy, but he's off to a roaring start. Meanwhile, the Lerners are trying for an honorable mention with their tenure owning the Washington Nationals.
Tags: rant, redskins, sports
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07:01 am
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The Daily Tweet (Rockin' Robin!)
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09:38 am
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Interesting beverage
We went to War of the Wings. Business was, unfortunately but unsurprisingly, disappointing. Not disastrously so, but all the same.
On the other hand, I had the opportunity to taste a potent potable that was surprisingly nummy. It was, in effect, a fairly sweet dessert wine, best consumed in small sips. I don't know if there is a specific term along the lines of perry, sizer, cider, mead, etc. It was made from maple syrup.
All intimations I've gotten are that that is a path of great folly. That the fermentation process yields nastiness. That was decidedly not the case. The maple flavor was not in-your-face obvious; it seemed almost caramel. Knowing that it was maple, I could identify the note. It lingered. It really lingered. Loooong finish. But yum.
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10:01 pm
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That was pathetic...
I was listening to an interview of a spokesperson for the Chicago Olympic bid. She was bravely putting a good face on it and not being whiny. Then, in an attempt to be gracious, she said something like "I hope I'm not mangling the Spanish" followed by some sort of congratulatory remark in something that sounded like Spanish.
Did anyone tell her that they don't speak Spanish in Rio?
Tags: snark
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07:00 am
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The Daily Tweet (Rockin' Robin!)
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06:50 pm
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Chocolate
It's only a cell phone camera of low quality, but...
( Dog pictures below the cut )
Current Mood:  calm
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06:20 pm
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Adventures in car land
That was totally bizarre. Here I am driving down the road, approaching an intersection. The vehicle behind me suddenly pulls into the left turn lane and starts overtaking me. With further suddenness, he pulls back into my lane. I have a very good view of the side of his pickemup truck at this moment. There was a crunching noise.
I stopped and got out to survey the carnage. Pickemup truck did not stop. Well, he went a quarter mile down the road and stopped. Behind me was another car. The driver announced that she witnessed the whole thing and offered to stick around. I accepted with alacrity. While I was on the phone with the police, the local police happened on scene.
I got the license number plate of the truck; one cop went down to where he had stopped and invited him to join the party. Mr. Bowie Police Man mediated the exchange of information; I didn't have to speak to the moron. Insurance has been initiated; the car is in their hands already.
Damage is minor, I think, but it may add up. Pictures below the ( cut... )
Current Mood:  cranky
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07:01 am
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The Daily Tweet (Rockin' Robin!)
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11:03 am
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On misbehaving:
It is unlikely that y'all are unaware of any part of the recent Trifecta of Notable "Adults" Behaving Like Ill-Mannered Children. Just to be clear, playing the roles of Moe, Larry, and Curly are (in no particular order) Mr. Wilson (R-SC), Mr. West, and Ms S. Williams.
Mr. Wilson has declined to proffer an actual apology. He may have made a faux apology in private, but his outburst was a public insult that requires a public apology. Or not, if one doesn't feel that one has done anything to apologize for. I'm inclined to believe the latter, and extrapolate from that a measure of his character. I assert that he was engaging in a calculated piece of theatrics that demonstrate contempt for civil conduct. It is asserted and not persuasively denied that Mr. Wilson felt less restrained by the virtue(?) of the complexion of the President. I've not come to any real clarity on the question in my own mind.
Mr. West appears to have proffered something resembling an apology, but I somehow doubt that it showed or contained any actual sincerity. Worse, his conduct was immediately treated as an understandable outburst by people in a position to show disapprobation and who should have known better. It has been posited that Mr. West would not have pulled such a stunt (the Hennessey speaking? I think not) were the person at the podium of a darker complexion. I'm not sufficiently familiar with Mr. West's body of work to have an informed opinion on where he might stand, but the argument does play into my own prejudices on the question.
Ms Williams offered an apology in a press release, then amended that verbally the next day. The amendment was along the lines of making a clearer statement of personal responsibility. Her actions on the court were inexcusable, but her subsequent actions to take responsibility for them are the mark of good character. In addition, her outburst came "in the heat of the moment". That doesn't excuse it, but it does set it in a context -- a context hard to find in the first two cases. Others have taken it upon themselves to rant about the line judge who was (as Ms Williams noted) Just Doing Her Job. That rantage has come perilously close to "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"
Mr. Wilson is wallowing in the attention he is getting, but it is important that the House formally put its disapprobation on record. Anything less would be countenancing that level of misconduct. Mr. West is probably relishing all the attention he has gotten as well. I don't see Ms Williams wallowing or relishing.
I'm glad that Serena made unambiguous, public statements taking personal responsibility for her lapse. I'm disgusted with Mr. Wilson's manner of expression. Mr. West is simply a self-serving idiot (who may have a drinking problem).
Now, I'm not closely following any of these stories in the media, so I may have missed something. However, I'm
Tags: rant
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08:00 pm
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And the house gets less empty...
Yesterday, Heather and MJ made a road trip to Wytheville, VA. That's most of the way down I-81. They returned with a dog. He is named Chocolate. He's (mostly) black lab.
He's also rather underweight and has a few other health issues. He's been home less than 24 hours as of this point. He also Smells Like Dog big time. There's a skin condition involved that should be amenable to some special shampoo.
Chocolate appears to be somewhere around 4 or 5 years old. This is going to be an interesting ride.
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07:47 pm
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Renn Fest and Cercamon
Saturday I did something completely new. I went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Yep. Never done that before.
I went to see Cercamon perform. In between, I caught the Rogues for a couple of sets as well. Cercamon did four sets; I caught them all. At the end of the day, I was chatting with Pierre-Alexandre (the lead guy) and he finally exclaimed that he remembered me. Before getting to that point, he did note that I made all four sets. I snagged the two CDs that I didn't yet have, including their brand new one.
I enjoyed the shows, although their second set started late. You see, the act that preceeded them seemed to run a bit over their allotted time. I guess when you're a "big name" act, you don't have to clear out in a timely fashion. Maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy, but I didn't thing Hack and Slash were nearly as funny as they clearly thought they were. They drew an audience, but I found their act to be a lot ... disappointing.
Cercamon did a number of familiar pieces along with stuff from the new album. Interestingly, the new album is entirely Languedoc -- songs from the south of France in Occitan.
I didn't have a whole lot of spare time to see the entire fair since I was focused on not missing any of the sets.
All in all, it was a good day.
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07:00 am
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The Daily Tweet (Rockin' Robin!)
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08:41 am
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Musings on "judicial interference in parenting"
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) thornintherose recently shared a story from New Hampshire about a judge ordering that a young girl be enrolled in the public school instead of being home schooled. The primary piece cited was http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/08/judge-orders-homeschooler-into-public-school-for-being-too-religious/. That opinion piece jumps the shark pretty quickly and demonstrates that the author is not nearly as smart as he seems to think he is.
The actual order signed by the judge is helpfully provided at http://www.telladf.org/UserDocs/KurowskiOrder.pdf for our edification.
The parents are divorced. The mother appears to have primary custody of the child. When the child came of school age, the mother home schooled her. The father favored the public schools.
In the fullness of time, the question came before the court, as the parents were unable to reach agreement on amending the custody arrangement. Mediation having failed, the question was dropped into the court's hands for resolution. That pretty much ensures that the outcome is going to create something to get all worked up about.
The opinion screed on Dakota Voice carps about judicial interference in parenting decisions, as if the mother's position is the only one that matters. I guess in their world view, having the mother be a good Christian and shielding her eleven year old daughter from the moral cesspit that are the public schools is the only thing that can possibly matter. That the daughter's affection for her father is tainted because he does not profess the particular brand of religious belief that she has been inculcated with seems to be overlooked as of no great import. I guess ideological purity trumps having two parents.
The court order does make it quite clear that there is no finding that the child is in any meaningful danger of emotional trauma or abuse or any of that stuff. The child is bright, articulate, and academically at or above grade level. The order does specifically note that one of the benefits of being in the public schools is that she will be exposed to people who do not share her mother's specific faith and practice, giving her the opportunity to consider alternatives. The objectors latch onto that as a Clear Sign that the judge is anti-religious (or at least anti-the-mother's-religion). Handy for keeping the rabble roused, but otherwise non sequitur.
The court order conveys a sense that the judge did not lightly decide the matter, but it is clear that a decision had to be made and imposed on the parents as they were unable to come to agreement on the matter. Ignore that fact and you have serious rant material. You also create a serious credibility problem if anyone examines the rant carefully.
The decision was not, fundamentally, on religion or on homeschooling. It was not an activist court inserting itself into matters normally reserved to the parents. It was resolving a dispute between divorced parents in the only way that was left.
Tags: divorce, homeschooling, rantish, religion
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08:30 am
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New acquisitions
I raided my father's wood pile yesterday. I also obtained the 6 inch belt sander and it's bench.
Among the planks is a piece of oak. Quarter-sawn. About 1 inch thick. 24 inches wide. Six feet long. It's got a small deviation from flat down the middle, but nothing that requires excessive wood removal. I see a table top in this.
There is some cherry (surprise!), some walnut (not black), and some butternut. I also scored a couple of chunks of magnolia and a couple of pieces of osage orange. I left behind (for now) the two five inch thick chunks of the walnut. The walnut is marked "1977". It's well seasoned. I suspect that none of the wood planks are less than twenty years removed from being milled.
While I was up in New Jersey, I also stopped by to visit an old friend from high school. We've not been in contact for over 25 years. It was great to catch up and to compare notes. Since I graduated from high school, I've only seen four of my classmates. Jim likewise claims about the same number.
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08:07 pm
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Hippo Birdies
It should be Monday at the appropriate location so I can safely say:
Happy birthday, wolfette
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07:07 am
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The Daily Tweet (Rockin' Robin!)
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05:25 pm
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Pennsic redux
First off, my pants are totally bankrupt. Life continues.
We went. We sold. We sold more stuff than we ever had in one day on Midnight Madness.
We packed out Friday night and left Saturday morning. We packed dry. Good stuff.
The weather mostly didn't suck. Not too much wet. Heat not a problem at all. A couple of chilly nights.
We had a pretty good war overall. We have the vehicles unloaded and the laundry under way.
It was good to see people. I got some interesting consults in at herald's point. I got to wear The Hat on multiple occasions. Loiosh didn't freak out this time. I got to teach several people tablet weaving.
It's good to be home.
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03:43 pm
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Staples... all bent out of shape
So we order another batch of sales slips. We provide camera ready copy (complete with crop marks plainly identifying it as 8.5 x 5.5). Staples calls to say they are in (this being Monday).
Right. They printed them up on 8.5 x 7. WTF? Far worse, the smaller text was unreadable. Pixelated. As if they reduced the resolution to 36 dpi grey scale.
I take them back. They say 5-7 days. I say we must have them by Friday. They say "we'll try". I say "not good enough". They say "we'll have them". They lied. They shipped from the printer today. They won't have them until Saturday or Monday. They have agreed to ship them to us at Pennsic and are supposed to call me when they do so. We'll see.
Suffice it to say that we won't be doing more of this sort of business through Staples.
Fortunately, we have enough slips to get us well into the war (absent a major reverse mugging early).
Current Mood: pissed off
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09:03 am
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Sadness
Moments ago, a message appeared on the Merry Rose.
Duchess Arielle the Golden passed away this morning after a nine year battle with cancer.
Arielle was a beacon of light. She was unfailingly courteous and projected good cheer. Such was her stature that the Kingdom of Atlantia established the Award of Arielle to honor courtesy in children. Among her legacies is the Children's Fete at Pennsic.
Our world is dimmer for her passing. Please hold those close to her, particularly her husband, Valharic, in the light.
Current Mood:  sad
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