Who do you want on your side, McCain or the other guy? (Not that guy, the other, other guy.)

John McCain says, "The redistribution of wealth is the last thing America needs right now." Meanwhile, Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, Bishop of Worcester, has issued a pastoral letter regarding the current economic crisis. quotes Acts 2: 44-46, “Those who believed shared all things in common; they would sell their property and goods, dividing everything on the basis of each one's need.”

Breaking news: pretty women make men stupid

Kathleen Parker, a generally conservative columnist, writes¹ that "pretty women foil men's ability to assess the future." Citing a study in Canada, Parker notes that John McCain's judgment regarding his selection of Sarah Palin as his VP nominee was clouded by the fact that she's a looker. The study, Parker continues, concluded that men, when presented with pictures of pretty women, will opt for smaller, short-term gains instead being able to wait for a larger, deferred reward.

¹Free registration may be required to read Parker's essay on the Washington Post site.

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Holden

Monday, October 13

7:31 a.m. Cimarron Lane resident reports lots of trash left on lawn
6:42 p.m. Report of party who will not give caller back cell phone on Quinapoxet St.; party spoken to, cell phone returned
9:05 p.m. Suspicious person on Main St.; all set, it's the janitor

Thursday, October 16

6:58 p.m. Suspicious vehicles in parking lot on Reservoir St.; OK, just talking

Friday, October 17

5:01 p.m. Suspicious people behind business on Reservoir St. smoking bong; no contact
9:29 p.m. Suspicious motor vehicle on South Rd.; OK, just looking for dropped cell phone

Saturday, October 18

9:06 p.m. Kids ringing doorbells on Nola Dr.; two bikes abandoned
10:22 p.m. Kids into lobby with parents to pick up bikes

Sunday, October 19

12:48 a.m. Dead raccoon on South St.
10:15 p.m. Walk-in reports someone put smoke bomb or cherry bomb in mailbox on Causeway St.; that mailbox hit almost every Friday
4:57 p.m. Chapel St. resident taking pictures of cars speeding on Chapel St.

Paxton

Thursday, October 16

5:38 p.m. Caller requesting animal control officer for beagle lost since September, spotted in West Boylston

RoasterBoy's playlist

1)	RoasterBoy has sent you a custom Slacker radio station RoasterBoy sent you a personalized Slacker radio station. Check out the station details below or click ... http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/10/roasterboy-has-sent-you-custom-slacker.html
2)	Genius playlist based on Little Feat's Dixie Chicken Little Feat - Dixie Chicken Waiting For Columbus [Live] The Outlaws - (Ghost) Riders in the Sky Best of The Outlaws: Green ... http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/10/genius-playlist-based-on-little-feats.html
3)	YouTube - Pogues live - Dirty Old Town YouTube - Pogues live - Dirty Old Town http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/10/youtube-pogues-live-dirty-old-town.html
4)	YouTube - Rock Lobster • The B-52's This is an old, black-and-white clip, an unpolished gem: YouTube - Rock Lobster • The B-52's http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/10/youtube-rock-lobster-b-52s.html

Warning: Finns getting funky

Friend Liz senr the following link for a Finnish disco dance lesson:

I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours

One of our neighbors, a retired engineer, says that he dreams of work every night. That's not been m case, but I do dream of work often. This night, it was the variant on the forgetting-to-study-for-an-exam college classic. I had, in the dream, taken the notes for a previous meeting and couldn' find the notes. So, while I'm back in my office, trying to get my laptop going, my office mate has left his pre-school daughter there for the day. The floor is covered in popcorn and there was something about a cat. (Last evening, I'd watched a piece of Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives where they mentioned Schrödinger's cat.) In the end, I was racing back to the conference room to connect my laptop to the projector so that all could see the notes. I woke exhausted, as though I'd worked a hard day.

Re the title, Bob Dylan said that.

George W. Bush may have his roots in Finnish Savo

Yikes. It turns out that President Bush may be a descendant of a group of "slash-and-burn farmers" who were exiled from northern Sweden to Deleware in the 17th century. 'Splains some stuff, maybe.

Dept. of HBD

Happy 17^th, Matt.

New post on Real Worcester site

Worcestershire Journal - Banking Done Right : Real Worcester - Worcester News and Blogs

Brainwave most likely to strike at 10.04pm

According to this study, the most creative time of day occurs just as the sleep timer has turned off our TV.
via /.

Caring for the poor, old school

A brief story about how communities used to take responsibility for their poor. It wasn't always the most gracious, but it does remind us to see our neighbors as, well, our neighbors:
Mass Moments: Town Meeting Auctions Poor Woman to Lowest Bidder

via BlueMassGroup.com

The future isn't what it used to be

OK, so what does this portend? Even though I've been away from work for more than two years, I've kept up some of my connections to the technical writing community. One connection is a subscription to a long-standing, email-based tech writing group, Techwr-l (tech writing list). Techwr-l has been around for nearly a dozen years. It's been fun to search the archives and see some of my posts from long-gone email addresses.
Recently, I received a message from the Techwr-l administrator, informing me that my name had been selected at random from the list of subscribers and that I would receive a free admission to next week's Doctrain East conference. This includes passes to the pre- and post-conference training workshops, four days of technical documentation training and presentations, valued at nearly a thousand bucks.
I'm a guy who never buys lottery or raffle tickets, who has been to Vegas and never wagered a cent in the casinos. To win something such as this is, well, I don't know what it means.
Oh, and early next month, I'll attend a seminar on patent searches. A friend and former co-worker is now an intellectual property attorney. She sent me the notice of the seminar. I may do some part-time patent researching.
All of which reminds us that you don't have to know where you're going to get there.

They did us proud

The Red Sox gave us a full season, including an exciting last few games of the championship series. They hung on longer than expected, particularly with the loss of Mike Lowell and the Manny distractions in the summer.
A few other notes:

• Dustin Pedroia has so many great instincts, but running while Ortiz was at bat was a dumb move, leading to the strke-'em-out-throw-'em-out double play.
• Something has to be done to give Jacoby Ellsbury more playing time.
• Jason Veritek is worthy of being team captain for his leadership on and off the field. The Red Sox should do what it takes to keep him in Boston for the remainder of his career. In return, though, he's gotta fix his hitting.
  
• As much as i respect the guy, I think that it's time for Tim Wakefield to hang 'em up.
  

Report from the 2008 Ionman Hawaii competition

Friend Tania recently completed the Ford Ironman World Championship competition. Here's her report:

hi all!
i know i've been hush-hush about this, b/c i've been so nervous...but at 4 minutes to midnight saturday night, i became an ironman hawaii world championship finisher :)
it is not everyday that an average person like myself gets to be in a world championship for anything...but i won a coveted lottery slot to participate in the event, so i trained hard this summer and went to kona to do it...and i miraculously finished!!
it was great...and hard...and a very, **very** long day. my official time to complete the race was 16:55:46. almost the full 17 hours allowed...my slowest ironman yet -- but i did not and still absolutely do not care. :) there were only 6 of us left on the course, and only 5 of us finished officially...with less than 5 minutes to spare. so, i am truly just grateful i was one of those final 5 to finish!!
the race's legendary heat and winds were said to be worse than usual, and had me worried i might not even make the bike cutoff. there were times where i was working hard just to pedal downhill! and then by the time the run came, it was more like a 26.2 mile speed walk and shuffle than a run. but i just kept saying to myself "never, never, never give up" -- even though some moments i really wanted to.
i'm still quite sore and tired, but i'm bending down and going up and down stairs with greater ease each day! accomplishing this and feeling the joy of running down alii drive towards those big lights and finish line makes it totally bearable :)
i attached my new favorite photo. the girl behind me is joanna, we met during the marathon portion of the event. in true ironman spirit, for more than 6 hours, we stuck together to the very end, motivating one another to keeping going and finish before the cutoff.
thank you all for your support that day...undoubtedly i had angels and good vibes on my side all day long!!
love,
tania...currently ranked #1630 in the world at the ironman distance ;)

Editor's note: In case you are wondering, an Ironman competition is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, followed by a marathon (26.2 miles).