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Showing posts from October, 2011

A Series Worthy of Note

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I can’t let this October go by without a post on the 2011 World Series . There have been about 36 Game Sevens played in major league baseball history. 20 of those have been during my lifetime though I have only watched a dozen or so of them. The first I recall was the final game of the 1968 World Series which I remember watching on a black and white TV. I have seen many Series and 2011 was an entertaining one. Stories involving "Game Seven of the World Series" are the mountaintop of imaginary baseball moments. I’m a kid playing with a stick and my dog, bare feet in the cool evening grass, and it is Game Seven. I’m up to bat with the game on the line. Or I am the pitcher, seeking the final out in a close Game Seven. Here comes my fastball. That kind of stuff. That’s what makes a “real” Game Seven special. It puts you in a position to be playing for everything. In truth the 2011 Game Seven was an almost inevitable let-down. It had a lot of drama in the early innings but it soo

Forever War

This month marks the tenth anniversary of America’s attack upon united Taliban-factions and al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan. Last year, many in the media mistakenly reported that the war in Afghanistan was the longest war in US history . This is an anniversary almost no one wants to recognize . The triumphant energy that inspired the endeavor initially in retaliation for the al Qaeda attacks upon symbolic targets in the United States has given way to the usual disillusionment and conflicted emotions and rationale that accompanies any seemingly endless war . We Americans like our wars fast and decisive. Historically, the majority of Americans will tolerate a war for 3-4 years but anything after that leads to a growth of anti-war sentiment. Consider the Vietnam War , a comparison I will use in some fashion throughout this post. The involvement of "regular" US ground infantry started in 1965 . By 1968, there were large riots in streets . As of today, there are no anti-war

Gaddafi, Bloody Gaddafi

Muammar Gaddafi was violently killed today , along with one of his sons . The other son was wounded and taken to a hospital. An air-strike by French jets stopped Gaddafi from fleeing his last stronghold in Sirte , Libya. Today was NATO's finest moment in a long time . The Lybian Revolt ended, the revolution was won . It is another victory for the Arab Spring . Now comes the hard part . Meanwhile, US diplomacy in Pakistan continued at a critical stage for the war in Afghanistan. I read all this on my iPad while watching the Cardinals play the Rangers in Game Two of the World Series on TV. The Rangers beat the Cardinals 2-1 in an outstanding baseball game .

Taking an Afternoon Off

I took a half-day of vacation today. It was a bright, sunny day with early autumn color on leaves resting in a breeze, the ground damp from recent rain, though the air itself was clear and free of humidity. I worked until lunch, then I drove by Pak-Mail and dropped off 40 Fed Ex small boxes. It is part of our latest marketing efforts at work. Before I left the office I sarcastically told my boss (the company prez) that I had no interest in working this afternoon. He laughed and said if he didn’t have a demo he needed to see he’d be gone too. He and I are surprisingly close after 10+ years of working together. That’s my longest period with one boss in my career. Work has been extremely demanding for me lately, the brain-drain kind of demanding, and I need to take more time off. I still have eight days of vacation left and the year isn't getting any younger. I stopped by my usual package store and picked up a 12-pack of beer for later in the day. It was lunch time and people were alr

Help Wanted: The Next "Steve Jobs"

I have no memory of Steve Jobs . Until very recently, as far as I was concerned he might have never existed. Today I feel almost utterly alone (and certainly quite selfish) in my assessment of the passing of this great innovator . Until today I have never researched Steve Jobs. I have never particularly followed him in the news. I have never owned an Apple Computer , never owned an iPod , never owned an iPhone , and never bought music through iTunes . I am, in fact, an MP3 man . When one of the partners I work for scoffed at my boast some time ago of being "tuned-out" of Apple's little music monopoly (which is modeled after Microsoft's near-monopoly over PC operating and office productivity systems) I simply pointed out to him that MP3's are what someplace called amazon.com sells. Google that sometime. Then, my daughter and wife (both iPhone fanatics - technology really does have a strangely alluring quality to human beings) bought me an iPad2 for my birthday . Su