Murder on Black Friday

In memory of Jdimytai Damour, can we please give some sense this holiday season?

frustratingly simple when you figure it out

Manifold - Create gravity wells and get to the exit

Dave Barry Gift Guide

Are you as sick of the holiday season as we are? The "shop early or we'll shoot this economy" campaigns are getting a little bit heavy.

Fortunately, Dave Barry has just the gifts to put you off buying presents, forever.

Meanwhile, I am pretty thoroughly fed up with the holiday excess, and we have not hit Thanksgiving, yet.

Attempting to get rid of Hosting Matters

We are attempting to free ourselves of our domain provider, which will not respond to support contacts, but is very quick to bill us for unwanted services.  Coverage may be spotty over the next few weeks.

Transition Watch

An interesting widget. Shall we add it to the site?

Boffer Party

We had a big birthday party for the boys on Sunday. We had beautiful weather for the middle of November, which was great since we were outside. On Saturday and Monday, the highs were in the 30's or low 40's, but Sunday the high was in the 50's.

You may be wondering what a "boffer party" is. It's when you get a bunch of boys together, give them all foam swords, and let them boff each other all afternoon. There were 11 boys at the party (including ours), from the ages of 6-12. They all had lots of fun. Christopher organized lots of different games for them: 1-on-1 duels, capture the flag, protect the king, and melee. The kings had to wear funny wigs, which you can see in the pictures. A great time was had by all, and no one got hurt.

This Was Not a Sport When I Was a Kid

Eight and a half minutes of young hooligans to the accompaniment of French rap.

Bah!

Link from ESPN the Magazine.

Are You Ready?

I know a lot of people are depressed by the Democratic electoral victory in the recent Dumb-Off.

Personally, I am of the strong belief that Obama will be neither as bad as his haters detractors fear, nor as good as his worshippers supporters hope, just like any other politician in this country. He is not the Messiah, but he is not the anti-Christ, either. There is room in the middle, believe it or not.

So, you can vote in our poll if venting will help you heal, or you can follow Bush's advice and go shopping more.

You could even, as many seem to be, start getting ready for the next election. Perhaps you have a favorite candidate already.

I'm still hoping Mike Rowe will run.

Or perhaps you have become addicted to the election coverage. If so, you should know that no less than the president-elect has suggested that paying too much attention to the media is unhealthy.

After three months of campaigning, he stopped reading blogs. After six months, he stopped watching cable news shows. After nine months, he stopped reading the clips, relying instead on his staff to flag important stories.

Obama said during a brief conversation that it was "just weird" to be constantly reading and watching reports on his candidacy, creating a "hall of mirrors" effect that he regarded as unhealthy. He said that cable news yakkers, like those on ESPN, make provocative comments because they have so much time to fill, even though politics, in his view, is far more important than sports.

So there's that to ponder.

Anyway, you can give thanks for your candidate, give thanks for your country, give thanks that it's over, or just give thanks. At least we can all agree that a couple years without robo-calls will do us good.

Semper Fi

On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution stating that "two battalions of Marines be raised" for service as landing forces with the American fleet. This established the Continental Marines and marked the birth of the United States Marine Corps.

Their first amphibious raid on foreign soil in the Bahamas was in March 1776, under the command of the Corps' first commandant, Capt. Samuel Nicholas.

With the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, the last of the Navy's ships were sold, and the Continental Navy and Marines were disbanded.  It did not last long.

The formal re-establishment of the Marine Corps was on July 11, 1798.  Following which, the Marines fought in conflicts with France, landed in Santo Domingo and conducted operations against the Barbary pirates along the "Shores of Tripoli," Lebanon.

Marines continue to serve prominently and valiantly in both the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan.

By order of Major Gen. Lajeune, General Commandant of the USMC, the following is read every year since 1921 to commemorate the Corps' birthday.

MARINE CORPS ORDER No. 47 (Series 1921)
HEADQUARTERS
U.S. MARINE CORPS Washington, November 1, 1921

The following will be read to the command on the 10th of November, 1921, and hereafter on the 10th of November of every year. Should the order not be received by the 10th of November, 1921, it will be read upon receipt.

On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental Congress. Since that date many thousand men have borne the name "Marine". In memory of them it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history.

The record of our corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world's history. During 90 of the 146 years of its existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the Nation's foes. From the Battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and in the long eras of tranquility at home, generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas, that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our corps, Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term "Marine" has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the corps. With it we have also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our Nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as "Soldiers of the Sea" since the founding of the Corps.

JOHN A. LEJEUNE,
Major General
Commandant

Of the Marines, President Ronald Reagan said, "Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But the Marines don't have that problem."  We should honor them and the Corps for 233 years of continued service.

For my friends and family in other branches of the armed service, I note these dates.  The Continental Army, which was formed on June 14, 1775, before the establishment of the United States, became the United States Army on June 14, 1784, after the war.  The Navy was established without authority by George Washington on 13 October, 1775, disbanded in 1783, and did not get its first warships until 1797.  The Revenue-Marine was established by Congress on August 4, 1790, at the urging of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, later renamed United States Revenue Cutter Service, and finally merged with the United States Life-Saving Service in 1915 to form the United States Coast Guard. The Army Air Forces separated from the Army to become the United States Air Force on September 18, 1947, after decades of attempting to separate.

I could add the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (1889) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps (1917) as the other federal uniformed services that commission officers as defined by Title 10, but that would get ridiculous.

Isaac's birthday pics...

...are now uploaded. You can see them here. A few things he got that we didn't get pictures of are the Beach Boys CD Sounds of Summer, and another Broncos shirt. Also, I noticed we didn't get an actual picture of the present from Grandma Becky and Grandpa Lee, which was a Lego set: Lord Vladek!

I hate this freaking election

Hello, everyone.
This is Isaac: twelve years old and feeling fine!

Dad says I should post my views about the election here, even though he already sort of did.

Well, I think it can be best summed up in what I voted for in that poll Dad put up in the upper left hand corner of the site. I chose the last choice, specifically:

I hate this freaking election.

We did a paper in our Social Studies class that was supposed to help us choose a candidate. We wrote down our views on six topics: Education, War in Iraq, Health Care, National Security and Terrorism, the Environment, and Jobs and the Economy. Then, she told us the candidate's views, we wrote them down, and circled who we agreed with for each view. Me? I agreed on three of the issues with Obama, and on three of the issues with McCain!

This, obviously, did not help me decide who I was going to vote for.

Nor, by the way, did the girl in my grade who, on Halloween, dressed up as Palin and tried to get me to vote for her.

But I'm getting off track.

I talked to Dad, and he told me that when you're torn on the views, you look at other things. Things like:

1. Integrity (That would be neither candidate)
2. How well they ran their campaign (Obama)
3. Experience (McCain)

Great Googaly Moogaly: I still don't know who to vote for.

As Dad said, the kids in my class were getting angry that I wasn't taking sides.

The conversations went like this:

My Republican friends: So, who are you voting for?
Me: I don't know.
Aforementioned Republican friends: Ha ha ha. Seriously, Isaac. You're voting for McCain, right? I mean, who would vote for Obama?

(or:)

My Democrat friends: So, who are you voting for?
Me: I don't know.
Aforementioned Democrat friends: Ha ha ha. Seriously, Isaac. You're voting for Obama, right? I mean, who would vote for McCain?

The number one argument for Obama was "Obama is your mama!" This will tell you the sort of people in my class who tend to be Democrats.

The number one argument for McCain was "Come on. Who would seriously vote for Obama?" when I asked them why they said this, they would stutter out, "um,er,ah,well, seriously? Are you going to vote for Obama?" When I asked them to tell me what was so bad about Obama, 90% of them suddenly had pressing engagements elsewhere.

So my classmates where unhelpful. Pretty soon, all my Republican friends were convinced I was for Obama because I didn't unquestionably accept their views, and all my Democrat friends thought I was voting for McCain for the same reason.

For a short time, I thought about forgetting both candidates and voting for Ralph Nader, but Dad said he would disown me if I did, so I decided not to.

At last, Election Day. Our school actually got to "vote" on November 3rd, but of course it didn't count for anything. So you guys got an extra day to think over your choices.

Lucky ducks.

Anyway, so: the voting "booth": a laptop on a desk in the lobby. I had an important class I had to go to in 5 minutes, but I still couldn't quite make up my mind.
At last, I decided.

I'm not going to tell you who I ended up voting for. Except that it wasn't Ralph Nader.

I eventually decided because the candidate I voted for, while I only agreed with him on half of the views, this half was, in my opinion, the most important half.

Well, Obama's president and I'm just glad the election's over. I think in 2012, I'm going to crawl into a dark hole for the year.

And that's my views on the election.

Isaac (On His Birthday)

So, today is Isaac's twelfth birthday and it seems the whole world is paying attention.

Well, paying attention to something.

Meanwhile, there was a school election, yesterday.  Being the terrible father I am, I flat refused to influence his vote, other than helping him learn about the issues and candidates.  It may surprise you to find that his views are actually more sound than many adults I know, but not if you have watched cable news.

Isaac found himself torn.  On half the issues, he supported one major party candidate, on half the other.  Meanwhile, his sixth-grade friends are rabid partisans.  "It seems like most of them are just voting for whoever their parents are voting for, and they don't even know why!" he complained.  He also noted that the most reasoned argument from any of his classmates was "O-ba-ma!  O-ba-ma!" chanted over and over.  His friends began to look upon him with suspicion for not taking sides.

However, Isaac summed up the campaigns very well.  "If you don't vote for Obama, you're a racist.  If you don't vote for McCain, you hate America.  None of it makes any sense, and they all seem to be lying!"

Nevertheless, he voted.  I will not tell you who he voted for, but the candidate has an A in his last name, so we will call him candidate A.  (The other candidate has an S in his middle name, so, likewise.)

Riding the bus, one of his classmates saw his "I voted" sticker and asked who he had finally chosen.  He then began to berate Isaac for choosing A.  When Isaac tried to interject with the reason he had voted for one and the reasons for voting against the other, his friend refused to listen.

Later, Isaac was carpooling with a family of ardent supporters of A.  When Isaac mentioned what had happened on the bus, the mother began to loudly and vociferously berate his S-supporting friend.

So, Isaac has, on his twelfth birthday, experienced all the joys of the American voter:  he got to choose between two candidates he did not like, he got yelled at by a friend who disagrees with his choice, he got to feel embarrassment at the ranting of someone who liked his choice, and, a full day after voting, he still does not know who won.

Isn't democracy wonderful?

Still, if he can vote, you should be able to.

By the by, if you wish to drop him a line, his address is Isaac at TenSengi.com.  I would recommend not discussing politics.

--
Sincerely,
Christopher Coleman (proud father)

PS.  Two weeks ago, my kids told me to turn down my music.  I am a brilliant father.

An Official Sign of the Overdue Apocalypse

Swansea Council became lost in translation when it was looking to halt heavy goods vehicles using a road near a store in the Morriston area. Which is (we are waiting for confirmation) believed to be in Wales.All official road signs in Wales are bilingual, so the local authority e-mailed its in-house translation service for the Welsh version of: "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only".

Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council was an out of office response, in Welsh. Which the Council then authorized to be used for the signs.

The English is clear enough to truck drivers - but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

Sign the Apocalypse Is Overdue # 12,674

Miami Lt. John Buhrmaster, a longtime homicide investigator sums it up: "It's a great record when people are not killing each other."

FL.I.P.P.Y.

Just wanted to let everyone know I've added the link to Isaac's book on the side bar of the blog. Feel free to tell friends and family about it. :)

We went to see City of Ember on Halloween night. We like getting out of the house and away from the trick or treaters. It was a good movie. It is set in a post-apocalyptic future. To save a portion of humanity from nuclear fall-out, a city is built deep underground. The people in the city have no idea there is any other world than their city, and now it is starting to fall apart. Visually, it was very stunning. The story was not completely well done. There were too many little things that were unexplained if you hadn't read the book. Also the pacing was kind of off. All in all, though, it was a very enjoyable way to spend our evening. I would recommend this movie. I hope the boys will post comments to tell you what they thought of the movie.

I also really like the book this movie is based on. I thought the concept was fascinating, a story about people who don't know what the sky is or weather or lots of things we take for granted. The sequel People of Sparks is also good.

Too Much Information

Whether they're watching TV, playing tennis, or voting, nudists like to be nude.