common sense

I’m still here. Um…there.

If you’d asked me three months ago if I’d still be in Shreveport, taking care of my dad, I would have said something like “hie thee to an asylum…you must be mad.” Yet, here I sit.

Taking care of an aging parent is a lot of things – a responsibility. A challenge. A privilege. But a burden it is not. I love my dad, and he needs my help. Unfortunately, It’s played havoc with my family, and for circumstances beyond my control, there’s little I can do about that, at least for now.

If you’re reading this blog, thanks for stopping by. I don’t really have time to post right now – soon, I hope. but let me encourage you to follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/captaindigital, natch). Since it’s just 140 characters at a time, and I can do it from my iPhone, I do seem to be able to fit that into my day.

Thanks, and talk to you soon.

– The Captain

[BLEEP] This.

I was surfing around my Dad’s satellite service last night, and stumbled on a rebroadcast of Blazing Saddles on AMC. Several years ago, I made a list of what I thought were the ten funniest movies ever made (in no particular order). As I recall, the list went something like this, give or take:

Blazing Saddles (Brooks/Little/Wilder)
Young Frankenstein (Brooks/Wilder/Feldman)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Monty Python)
Arsenic & Old Lace (Cary Grant)
The Producers (Brooks/Mostel/Wilder)
Animal House (Landis/Belushi)
A Night at the Opera (Marx Brothers)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Stoppard/Oldman/Roth)
Airplane! (Abrams/Zucker/Abrams)
Duck Soup (Marx Brothers)

When you watch a great movie, you’re watching a collaborative effort, but one that SOMEbody (usually the director) oversees and marks with his or her creative stamp. In comedies, more so that any other art form, timing is essential. Just one frame (a 24th of a second) can make a recognizable difference in the timing of a joke.

That brings me to the hatchet job AMC did on Blazing Saddles. [Read more…] about [BLEEP] This.

The UN-candidate.

Gov. Palin: You say Goodbye...I say Hello! — Gov. Palin: You say "Goodbye"...I say "Hello!"

We are all, at one level or another, creatures of habit. That’s a good thing, most of the time. I mean, if we woke up to a world everyday where we had to figure out how to feed and clothe ourselves, with no idea of what would come next, none of us would leave very productive lives. But there’s a dark side to habit – that being the phenomena whereby we attempt to pigeonhole everything that happens, so we can process it, understand it (in terms of previous experiences) and move on. This system of shorthand evaluations doesn’t work at all, however, when you run smack dab up against something new. New is…different. It doesn’t fit the mold. It doesn’t lend itself to snap analyzes, or fitting into patterns. But “new” is where innovation comes from. It’s where solutions come from. And it’s where our future lies.

Consider (soon-to-be former) Gov. Sarah Palin. [Read more…] about The UN-candidate.

A Call to Arms. And Legs.

Do you love your country? I do. What are you willing to do to save it? For it needs saving. Seriously.

Understand, this is not a Democrat versus Republican, or Liberal versus Conservative issue. It’s a Right versus Wrong issue. Our country, our values, our freedoms and our inalienable human rights are under attack. From where I sit, we each have but two choices – ignore the problem and hope it goes away, or do something about it.

So what do we do?

I think the answer are the many Tea Parties that will take place across the country on July 4th.

I am against the idea of armed insurrection. To take up arms against your own country is a contradiction of the very reason to fight – how can you protect the Constitution by violating it? (Answer: you really can’t.) Until and unless the Federal Government ignores the Constitution on a wholesale basis, taking up arms is NOT the answer. And, frankly, we’re a long way from that. Unfortunately, the American people are in the position of the proverbial “frog in the pot,” with the Progressives, Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists turning up the heat, gradually. Ignore the threats to the Constitution at your own peril. [Read more…] about A Call to Arms. And Legs.

4…3…2…1…We have (iPhone) liftoff…

Believe it or not (and I’m not sure I do, yet) I’m now the proud owner of a brand-new 32GB iPhone 3G s.

Pause with me for a nanosecond, whilst I let that sink in.

In one fell swoop, I can retire my Wagon Queen Family Truckster® (a.k.a.: “Windows Mobile/Sprint HTC Mogul”) crapalicious excuse for a cell phone. Being a card-carrying propellerhead, I’m still in the process of exploring what all my new phone can do (i.e.: jacking with all the configuration options, configuring ringtones, et cetera). It may be a couple of days before I’m ready to stop jacking with it, and allowing it to become the business tool I need. But I’ll enjoy working on it in the meantime. [Read more…] about 4…3…2…1…We have (iPhone) liftoff…

Hacked!

I hate hackers.

If I were king of the world, morons that get their jollies by stealing passwords, infecting sites with malware, defacing sites, and any other kind of mischief, would get the death penalty. No appeals. No delays. We’d string ’em up, preferably in public, with mandatory coverage by the networks. (Obviously, the networks are acquainted with mandatory programming – they cover every Obama presser, so they shouldn’t have a problem with a sensational, money-maker like a public execution.)

About a week ago, a client notified me that there was a problem with one of the sites I host for them. I assumed – at first – that the malicious JavaScript code that had been added to their index page without permission was an isolated incident.

Not so fast. [Read more…] about Hacked!

A Guide to Making Apologies.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you might have heard about the current troubles of David Letterman, and his serial apologies he’s made regarding the “joke”(s) he told regarding Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin and her daughters. Last night, Letterman made yet again another attempt at contrition. Color me “unimpressed.” You see, when you apologize, there are a couple of things you must do – and at least one that you must not do:

Say “I’m sorry.”
Say “I was wrong.”
Say “It’s my fault…I accept responsibility for the mistake.”
Say “I beg your forgiveness.”
Say “I will do my best to do better, and not make the same mistake again.”
Do NOT say “I’m sorry, but…” and then go on to offer any excuse.

When you offer an excuse, you’re essentially saying “what I did wasn’t that bad,” “it wasn’t really my fault,” or other weasel-words that attempt to deflect responsibility. [Read more…] about A Guide to Making Apologies.

Frame of Reference.

Something dawned on me the other day. I was talking with a friend last night and brought this up, and when I’d explained my point, he said that he’d never thought of things in that way before, and it was an idea that explained a lot. Now I’d like to share it with you.

Few people are alive today that are old enough to remember what life was like in America before Progressivism changed our country, and therefore it’s difficult to appreciate the difference in the way things were before, say 1920, and now.

Think about that for a minute. I was born in the late 50s, and grew up in the 60s and 70s. I have never known a time when Senators were appointed by State legislatures. I’ve never known a time without the IRS. As long as I’ve been politically aware, we’ve had Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, et cetera. In short, every year I’ve lived on this Earth, the United States has existed under a Federal government that is perceived as all-powerful, with the perception that the States report to/work for the Feds, and the people essentially work for the government.

Talk about bassakwards. [Read more…] about Frame of Reference.

The Origins of the Feces.

Everybody’s wired differently. Some people just want the facts. Others, like me, want to know what caused things. For me, it’s not enough to know what’s going on…I want to know how we got here.

If you’re a Glenn Beck listener (and if you’re not, you should be) he’s identified the Progressive Movement of the early 20th Century as the point at which politicians began remaking our government and diverting it away from our core Constitutional principles (essentially, the smallest government possible to do the job) to one that features Big Government, Big Taxes, and a trend towards treating the Constitution as a quaint document that really has little bearing on life today. [Read more…] about The Origins of the Feces.

common sense

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: