Author: matthew

I’m slow. I had to watch it twice to get it.

http://cornonthekabob.ytmnd.com/

I feel a terrible need to eat some corn and watch Star Wars now…

(Thanks to the Shadowguild Mailing List!)

The 2006 airshow at Hill Air Force Base is set to start at 8 AM at Hill this Saturday, June 10, 2006.

I’m kind of excited! I haven’t been to an airshow since Andrews Air Force Base as a kid. We’re packing up two families, taking a pair of vans, and planning on having a good time.

When was the last time you were at an airshow? Would you do it again?

Beyond the Marines rappelling from a helicopter, the main thing I remember from my last airshow was the fierce sunburn…

If you, like me, have ever bought something off of eBay, and then realized you could have gotten a better deal after you’d already committed to buy, then this cautionary tale may be for you if you hope to refuse delivery:

Vigilante eBayer obtains refund in person. (Warning: some strong language)

“So this is how liberty dies. To the sound of thunderous applause.” Padme, Star Wars III

From SFGATE.com:

The Supreme Court scaled back protections for government workers who blow the whistle on official misconduct Tuesday, a 5-4 decision in which new Justice Samuel Alito cast the deciding vote.

In a victory for the Bush administration, justices said the 20 million public employees do not have free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs…

Stephen Kohn, chairman of the National Whistleblower Center, said: “The ruling is a victory for every crooked politician in the United States.”…

“It’s a very frightening signal of dark times ahead,” said Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project.

Today is Memorial Day. I extend my gratitude to the service men and women who have kept and are keeping our country free and prosperous.

Annuit Cœptis Novus Ordo Seclorum.

The military history of my family is interesting. My brother, Jeff Barnson (who most of you don’t know, as I was adopted and he was my adopted brother, two thousand miles away) served in the US Air Force and is now a civilian pilot. My father, Bill Barnson, is a retired colonel in the US Air Force. My brother, Jay Barnson, was slated to enter the Air Force, but medical problems prohibited his entry (much to his relief, I think 🙂 ). My brother, Brian, served in the US Navy.

I guess I’m the aberration. I flirted with joining the US Army, and qualified to join them as a pianist, but decided to stick with cushy civilian life. I haven’t regretted that choice, in light of recent military deployments with which I disagreed, but I have enormous respect for those who have put their lives where their mouths are.

At the same time that I am grateful for those who serve in the military to preserve our freedom, I am deeply troubled that those freedoms are being eroded from within.

I am troubled because today, I cannot protest en masse with my fellow citizens within view of a seated US President. I will be removed to a “free speech zone”: a fenced, barricaded, razor-wired holding pen for those people who disagree with the President, often miles from the location where he is speaking. Those who support the President, however, may hold their support signs in full view of the cameras and our elected representative. I thought all the public property in the entire country was supposed to be a free speech zone.

I am troubled because my country condones the use of torture. We obey the letter of our treaties by not torturing our citizens and visitors within our borders, but by shipping them to third-world countries which will torture them on our behalf. It is a most cruel and unusual punishment to be deported, beaten, and tortured for information without a trial.

I am troubled because today, the average citizen cannot afford to run for high public office. Only the independently wealthy have much of a chance of succeeding; recent studies indicate that the average congressperson must have at least $2 million in cash to have a hope of winning a House seat. We seem to be turning into a country where only the wealthiest 2% of our population controls our legislative and executive branches. All men are not created equal, it seems.

I am troubled because the Executive and Legislative branches, together, are attempting to strip the Judicial branch of its authority to strike down certain types of legislation. In the name of “reducing judicial activisim”, they are attempting to turn our trinity of checks and balances into a duality, where all the power is concentrated in the hands of those who make and enforce the laws. This way lies, not democracy, but only tyranny.

I am troubled because we are on the brink of passing a national Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage. The Consitution is a document which outlines the structure and form of our government, and enumerates our rights. Such an amendment would be the only current amendment restricting the full exercise of these rights to a particular portion of the US population. It’s noteworthy that the only other amendments restricting the rights of citizens dealt with slaves and alcohol consumption, and have been repealed.

I am most troubled because our soldiers, the bulwark of our successful sovereignty, are being used to defend our “freedom” abroad, while our legislators and executive branch seem hell-bent on limiting our “freedom” at home. Non-warranted “sneak and peek” searches. Unlimited government access to telephone records. Aforementioned “free-speech zones”. Refusal to sunset the PATRIOT act, which grants unprecedented autonomy to law enforcement.

I can’t shake the feeling that we are being bilked in an enormous shell game. While we’re “watching the ball” on morality and traditional family, the hard-won rights fought for by our Founding Fathers are being repressed, little by little. Not enough to create a revolution or profound public resentment, but just enough at a time to get us used to the weight of the chains with which we will one day be shackled.

The United States is a nation of contrasts and contradictions. Side-by-side on our one-dollar bill stands the National Seal, with the phrases “Annuit Cœptis” and “Novus Ordo Seclorum” proudly emblazoned thereon. “Our undertakings are favored in this new secular order”*. On the other side reads, “In God We Trust”.

The freedom we fight for is, at its heart, the freedom to disagree. We disagree without fear of punishment. Without fear that our homes will be illegally searched and siezed. Without fear that our right to defend our selves will be stripped from us, or that our churches will be raided. We disagree with ourselves, all the way down to our currency.

This is as it should be.

I hope that we may be blessed with a peaceful year until next Memorial Day, and that our soldiers at home and abroad may be preserved from harm.

(* Yes, I understand that this may also read “He (God) has favored our undertakings” and “A New Order of the Ages” or “New Worldly Order” as well. Some consider “secular” a mistranslation; I think it’s poetic in the current context.)

Fart jokes never get old… I got this one in my email.

An old man and his wife have gone to bed. After laying there a few minutes the old man farts and says,”Seven Points.”

His wife rolls over and says, “What in the world was that?” The old man replied, “It’s fart football!”

A few minutes later the wife lets one go and says – “Touchdown, tie score!”

After about five minutes the old man farts again and says – “Touchdown, I’m ahead 14 to 7!”

Not to be outdone the wife rips another one and says, – “Touchdown, tie score!” Five seconds go by and she lets out a squeaker and says – “Field goal, I lead 17 to 14!”

Now the pressures on and the old man refuses to get beat by a woman so he strains real hard but to no avail. Realizing a defeat is totally unacceptable he gives it everything he has but instead of farting he poops the bed.

The wife looks and says, “What the heck was that?” The old man replied, “Half-time, switch sides!”

So we finally booked our flight to MD. We’re arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National on Thursday, July 6 around 5 PM, and leaving around 5 PM on Monday, July 10.

Let’s plan the party!

As many of you have probably noticed, our site has been going down and back up for the last three days. The hosting provider is being a bit dodgy about the cause. We’re up for the time being, but Paul and I are going to have dinner tonight and discuss relocation possibilities. Ever since they sold off JVDS to Fortress ITX, customer service has gone downhill.

I recently read my brother’s entry on Sleeping Less while Getting More Done, and it was some food for thought.

As many of you know, I’ve worked nights for the past year. For several months, I tried keeping a consistent sleep schedule, and that worked… mostly. Recently, I’ve been “slamming” my schedule, staying up all day Friday so that my Fridays and Saturdays are normal before going back to work Sunday night. Kinda’ miserable, but do-able. It just meant that Mondays were awful, Tuesdays through Fridays were OK (long day on Friday), Saturday was a little sleepy, and Sunday was “normal”, except for that part about leaving for work at 11 PM.

So I did some reading on different sleeping patterns, and was pleased to discover a thing called Polyphasic Sleep. This is just a fancy name for “taking multiple naps”. There are various programs, but they center around finding ways to reduce your total number of sleep hours in order to make sleep more restful and invigorating. The key seems to be setting, and keeping, a schedule. Which, of course, my night schedule didn’t really allow if I was attempting to lead a “normal” weekend life with my family and work graves during the week.

BTW: I think the whole “sleep debt” idea is pure baloney, and have for several years. So any argument which includes this concept doesn’t wash with me, because an ever-accumulating “sleep debt” doesn’t jive at all with my personal reality. One good night’s rest has often been enough to wipe away weeks of short-changing myself. And before anybody jumps down my throat about it, I understand the implications of long-term sleep deprivation. I’m living them due to shift work. My body, my science project 🙂

Anyway, have you played with various sleep schedules, trying to find a good balance? What worked for you, and more importantly, what didn’t?

The long-awaited seventh version of one of the best text editors on the planet, Vim, is finally out!

OK, I’m a nerd. Fine, whatever.

The killer features I’m excited about?

• Branching Undo. You don’t realize the usefulness of something like this until you write a full paragraph of your blog, then undo it. Then you write a replacement, including multiple undos, and realize that the previous version was just better. Now you can go back to that undo, branch to it, and re-do the branched undo! Sweet!
• Built-in completion for the programming languages I use most. I’ve been using scripts to do this a long time, but it’s nice to see intelligent parsing and placement built-in.
• Tabbed editing. Any user of Firefox can tell you, tabs make you more productive, period.
• Improved Unicode support. Those of us who use Vim as our editor for gmail, and happen to want to use, oh, say, gnupg, will appreciate this.
• Integrated browsing of remote directories, tar archives, etc.

Anyway, I’m stoked. I use vim at least 2-3 hours every workday (usually more!), and improvements are welcome.