Are We There Yet?

Early next month, I'll be traveling to China for a week on the premise of business. CeBIT Asia is taking place in Shanghai from October 10-13 and our company will be attending the show during one of those days as a guest of our distributor in China, which has a booth at the show. Naturally, you don't go to China simply for a trade show. There will be copious amounts of site seeing along the way that will take us to Beijing and Xi'an before arriving at our final destination in Shanghai.

The first, and only, time I've traveled internationally was 7 years ago when my wife and I honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico. Obviously, the travel landscape has changed significantly since then. We entered Mexico with nothing more than our birth certificates. Now, we have passports and the required travel visa to enter China.

With the latest restrictions on air travel and the items you're allowed to carry on-board, I've given more thought than normal to what will occupy the space of my carry-on(s). With this fresh in my mind, I was quick to catch the headlines of many recent articles detailing the lengths at which the US government is willing to go to categorize and inventory US citizens as they travel to and fro. To wit, it appears that the NSA / FBI / CIA / DHS is concerned with the reading materials of passengers.

Reading happens to be one of my passions in life. It's rare that I don't have at least one book on my nightstand at home and a queue of several more waiting in the wings to be read. Naturally, books are a staple of my carry-on luggage in every flight (and long car ride) I've ever had the pleasure of taking part in.

And why have I gone to such lengths to write all this up, you're asking?

The book that I'm currently reading, which will most likely be finished while I'm somewhere in the middle of the Pacific en route to Beijing, is the science fiction classic The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress from Robert Heinlein. The front cover of the book states it to be "(h)is classic, Hugo Award-winning novel of libertarian revolution." It is a book following the revolution to free Luna (the Moon, which has become a futuristic version of early 19th century Australia) from the oppression and tyranny of its token ruler (the Warden) and his puppet-masters on Terra (Earth).

I suppose now would be a bad time to also state my support for Ron Paul's campaign for President?

Oops. I suppose a print-out of this entry will also find its way in to the database detailing my reading habits.

Are we there yet, indeed.

Another few months, another woefully neglected blog. So neglected is it that I realized my Movable Type installation is out-of-date. Six Apart has moved on to version 4.0 of the Movable Type publishing platform, and I'm still running version 3.34.

For the most part, I've never been a big fan of upgrading things just for the sake of it. If something isn't broke, there's no reason to fix it. That's not to say that every software title installed on my computer is running the same version that I first installed. I like new features, improved interfaces, and more eye candy as much as the next guy. I certainly never miss a Windows Update, but one could easily make the argument that Windows is exempt from the aforementioned adage as it's fundamentally broke and therefore always requires fixing.

However, upgrading something like Movable Type isn't as cut-and-dry as it might sound.

Continue reading "Failed Upgrades" »

More to come on lawns and the insanity that lies within. But first, a little commentary from someone who knows a thing about creation. I didn't write this. I don't know did. But it sure is funny.

God: "Frank, you know all about gardens and nature, what in the world is going on down there on Earth? What happened to all the dandelions, violets, thistles and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect, no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honeybees, and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But all I see are these green rectangles."

St. Francis: "It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers weeds and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass."

God: "Grass? But it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds, and bees, only grubs and sod worms, it's temperamental with temperatures. Do these suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?"

St. Francis: "Apparently so Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn. "

God: "The spring rains and warm weather probably make the grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy."

St. Francis: "Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little they cut it, sometimes twice a week."

God: "They cut it? Do they bale it like hay?"

St. Francis: "Not exactly Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags."

God: "They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?"

St. Francis: "No sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away."

God: "Now let me get this straight. They fertilize the grass so it will grow, and when it does grow, they cut it off and then pay to throw it away?"

St. Francis: "Yes sir.

God: "These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work!"

St. Francis: "You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it."

God: "What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves form compost to enhance the soil. It's a natural circle of life."

St. Francis: "You had better sit down Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away."

God: "No way! What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter and to keep the soil moist and loose?

St. Francis: "After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in the place of leaves."

God: "And where do they get this mulch?"

St.: Francis: "They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch."

Last Wednesday, I began a cross country trek from SE Wisconsin to Western New York (or WNY as they seem to refer to it) to attend my oldest brother's college graduation. Previous to this trip, the longest I had traveled by car as the primary driver was a 5.5 hour trip a suburb of Detroit, MI for a friend's wedding. Of course, that was a very different trip from this one as gas was around $2.00 / gallon and I was not traveling with 2 kids under the age of 5.

As much as I'd like to say that a lot of preparation went in to the planning of this trip, that's not true. It's just not me to study the course, anticipate and plot potential problems, and make out contingencies. I searched for directions on various online map sites (namely Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, and Windows Live) to ascertain that they all agreed on the route to take (they did). As we were leaving on a weekday, we planned to leave in the evening and drive through the night to make it easiest on the kids and avoid traffic in the metropolitan areas (e.g. Chicago and Cleveland). The return trip was scheduled for a Sunday making traffic a mostly moot point, especially since Chicago traffic would be normal that evening after the Cubs and White Sox played each other that afternoon. Therein lies the extent of my cross country driving plans.

So, five days later, my brother has graduated cum laude with a B.B.A and I've returned from my trip. What follows are my observations...

Continue reading "Cross Country Musings" »