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12月28日 Happy New Year! Maybe...Happy New Year!
Maybe...
Laurie and I are managing to make it through the holiday season. My bout with the flu is just about over and Laurie is feeling better today than she did all last week. As much fun as Christmas can be I am always relieved to have another one behind us. I am just finding it a bit funny that for so many years there were those who condemned the gross materialism of the Christmas holiday. This year it is almost a social responsibility to spend some money on gifts. The message I see some places is that if you don't buy something a person will lose their job!
Now here comes the New Year! We are about to usher out 2008 and welcome 2009 with as much gala as our economically challenged nation can muster. For a person with a passion for history the passing of a year always asks the question about what the prior year will be remembered for? I honestly get the feeling that 2008 will be one of those benchmark years in our national history. It was the year we elected our first black president. It was also the year that we saw that the United States was going broke.
Now the real question for just about everybody else is what 2009 will bring? The biggest issue on the minds of most people is the economy. Trust me, it is on my mind too! Laurie and I are relatively financially secure but the telecommunications industry has been taking a lot of economics kicks in the teeth lately. This has as much to do with the transitioning of technologies as we move increasingly from a 'wired' world to a 'wireless' world. I have a feeling that I will live to see the last of the traditional twisted-pair copper telephone lines vanish into the dustbin of history.
I am not an expert on economics though. On the other hand I do know something about history and world politics. I do think that with all the attention focused on financial affairs the United States is about to get blindsided by an old international adversary. Guess what, the Russians are back!
The Russian military is growing again - to challenge ours.
For that matter so are the Chi-comms! They are even
talking about getting their first aircraft carrier!
Now it looks like the Russians want to provide Iran with SA-20 missiles!
Our new presidential administration next year is going to be facing some definite international challenges. I imagine that the Russians are a bit amused that the United States is potentially facing some of the same problems that the old Soviet Union faced shortly before their collapse. The Soviets had a failing economy in a time when they needed to expand their military expenditures in response to external challenges. The Soviet economy, always questionable at best, caved in. They finally threw in the proverbial towel and let Warsaw Pact collapse and just barely avoided sinking into chaos within their own national borders.
I'll admit right here that I didn't vote for Barack Obama. I wasn't happy with John McCain either. They both advocated policy positions that I do not believe in. This is one thing I will say though; I will support President-Elect Obama's decisions until I find reason to question them. I was always a little amazed how George W. Bush could not make a statement without somebody attacking it. It always seems to me that if you decide a presidential policy is a failure from the outset you will get what you believe it to be.
In the face of what we face as a nation I don't think it is wise to not support a new president. Barack Obama is going to face challenges such as this nation has not seen since the 1930's. To tell you the truth I fully expect Vladimir Putin to eat Barack alive in terms of foreign policy challenges. Putin is a pure throwback to the days of the KGB and the Kremlin. I don't think Vladimir knows any other way to conduct foreign policy than as a clear demonstration of 'Realpolitik'. I have a feeling that Barack will need to start learning this the hard way.
Well, this might be good news for me! I've had people tell me that my thinking is a throwback to the Cold War! I even used to have the nickname of 'Dr. Strangelove'! Maybe this will be a Happy New Year for me...
12月22日 Snow and SicknessSnow and Sickness
I'm afraid I didn't make my usual blog post this last weekend. It has almost become like a weekly religious ritual for me! I actually build my weekend plans around finding time to make the posting.
This last weekend I didn't.
Not much can stop me from working on the blog. I've gone through a crisis now and then and still found the time to camp out at the laptop. This time a combination of things struck me down! The snowstorm and the flu; this was a combination that I neither wanted or planned on. Laurie and I were pretty much snowed in and had a minimal amount of medications. I thought of the idea that necessity is the mother of invention; I decided to mix Pusser's Rum with some of Laurie's Mount Morency's Cherry Concentrate. It looked and tasted a bit like the cherry flavored Nyquil we didn't have in the house at the time. The fact of the matter is that if you belt down three of these you don't feel the flu that much anymore. You also don't feel a lot like updating a blog. That was just the nature of things last weekend.
Today Laurie and I made it into the office and later to Walgreens. Our drug supply is restocked and the Nyquil is nearby. Hopefully the snow will slack off a bit for the rest of Christmas week...
Now some of you probably know that Laurie and I both work for Qwest Communications. One of the things our company has been doing for a few years now is assisting the North American Aerospace Defense Command - otherwise known as NORAD - with their tracking efforts of Santa. Even in the politically correct environment of our company we can still manage to show a little Christmas spirit.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you!
12月14日 Deadwood on our minds...Deadwood on our minds...
The last couple of weeks have been hectic for Laurie and me. Work has been a major hassle as workloads change and people take vacation time. The good news is that we finally got our vacation schedule for next year! It always gives me something to look forward too!
The only problem is that I don't know yet how much time we will get off this summer. When you consider that over 60% of the people in my office are already retirement eligible it means that my seniority isn't all that high. It also looks to me like our management is planning our vacation schedule on the idea that the head count will be further reduced through attrition. This just means more work spread out over fewer people. Of course this is infinitely better than a surplus situation - this is Bellhead talk for layoffs. When I look at the news each day I am sincerely thankful that Laurie and I have relatively secure jobs.
We do have a January trip planned; the dates are down and the reservations are in. It really doesn't bother us that we are making the trip outside the regular tourist season for the Black Hills. In some ways it is a lot easier to get around the area and things seem much more relaxed. The problem is the weather. When you plan a six hundred mile roadtrip the weather is a critical concern. This year has already seen two snowstorms that would have shut us down if we had a trip planned then. We have been unusually lucky though. I even joke that the idea of getting snowed into Deadwood doesn't bother me all that much!
Of course we take more precautions for a winter roadtrip. We watch the weather closely and will be packing a survival kit. Better safe than sorry. Still, I am keeping my fingers crossed... 12月8日 In Memory of Tommy MischkeIn Memory of Tommy Mischke
Today Laurie and I found out one of our favorite radio talkshow hosts got laid off. Maybe he got fired, news about what happened is scarce. Either way, Tommy Mischke, the AM 1500 madman, was cut loose. Just a short mention today by 'High Speed' Chase at what would have been Tommy's current time slot. It was kind of a shock. I know Tommy is out there alive and well somewhere but it kind of hit like a death. I have to admit that I think 1500 could have given him a better send-off.
Look Tommy! You made it into Wikipedia!
The bloggers weigh in...
A little bit of Mischke...
TD at his album release party last Thursday.
Then you have the 'Booming Prairie Chickens' own video of Tommy in action.
Tommy, I didn't always agree with what you said but loved the way you said it. You never failed to amaze me with your talent. You also never failed to amaze me with your creative insanity. I don't know what happened but it was a loss to the 1500 listeners. I have a feeling you will bounce back somewhere. Hang in there for your fans.
12月7日 Electronic Voice PhenomenaElectronic
Voice
Phenomena
I've taken quite an interest in this since our last trip to Deadwood. Some of the most interesting evidence about paranormal phenomena in Deadwood has been in the EVP's that have been recorded there. If you are not familiar with 'Electronic Voice Phenomena' here is a nifty little wiki article on it:
This last week I have been doing a bit of research on the subject. It might just be possible to use some 'off-the-shelf' technology that is available today to improve the field work around this a bit. So in a big step to do this we bought a new laptop yesterday. This is a great time to buy a laptop if you are in the market for one. Lots of competitive pricing out there for the holiday season. The thing is we are not using the new laptop for our EVP experiment. We are now in the midst of converting my old laptop to do the work we are planning.
I'm not going to be able to post much on this today. I do intend to post more as this project matures. Right now I'm doing a bit of research on various equipment currently available that will work as a dedicated audio system for what we are building. My goal is to have this gadget built by the time we make our next trip out to Deadwood. This means I have about five or six weeks to put this together. I think I can do it.
12月2日 Thoughts on DeadwoodThoughts on Deadwood
Laurie and I made it back home last night just a little before 10pm. The trip back always seems longer than the trip there. I had a lot of thoughts along the way. It doesn't take a lot to see that the world is changing. I am a bit of a student of history and can't help wondering if our world is blundering along to some Archduke Ferdinand type of moment. The recent elections have not made me feel any better about that. I was not happy with either presidential candidate; in a lot of ways they both offered up the same solutions to the problems that face us. I don't vote for a person, I vote for ideas. I haven't seen any ideas lately that inspire my faith.
I have learned a lot from the past. Did you know that Deadwood was the result of a national finacial crisis? Just look up information on the 'Panic of 1873':
I've read a few historians that have speculated that the Custer Expedition of 1874 was a response to the economis crisis. The rumors of gold in the Black Hills was just too tempting to a government looking for answers. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty didn't mean much to the thousands of prospectors rushing away from the economic problems in the east. Now maybe they would have still headed into the Black Hills even without the financial crisis but I can't help but believe that the economic desperation just put spurs to their efforts.
It wasn't long after this that Deadwood popped up in the hills. You can think what you want about the 'theft' of the Black Hills from the Lakota. The moment gold was discovered I think the fate and future of the hills were decided. As ugly as some aspects of the Gold Rush were it did gradually help relieve the financial panic.
So here we are again. Maybe this will be called the 'Panic of 2008' someday? I haven't seen any politician offer a viable solution to the problem yet. At this point I think we are shovelling money into an endless series of hopeless bailouts. I'll tell you the truth; I don't have a lot of faith in the people we have just elected. These are the people we have elected and I do believe in the democratic process. I will support our new leadership until they give me a tangible reason not to support them.
Deadwood gives me hope though. This is a town of survivors. These people know a lot about crisis, they know a lot about scratching by and prospering inspite of it all. They faced a real financial crisis of their own back in 1989. They beat it by getting the State of South Dakota to grant them legal gambling. You might not like gambling but it solved the financial crisis. For almost twenty years now there isn't much that has been done in Deadwood that hasn't benefited from the gambling revenues.
Now this was all the result of an idea by a relatively small group of people. I don't think a single well-known politician carried the flag of this one. This was the people taking action to solve their problem.
Laurie and I are pretty comfortable in Deadwood. The fact is we are pretty comfortable throughout the Black Hills. I like to think that a lot of this has to do with an attitude of self-reliance that we find there. I just wish the rest of the country would pick up on this attitude... |
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