On Vacation

Not feeling the urge to post.

Free ice cream to resume at some future date.

The Free Ice Cream Machine

As you've possibly noticed, the TSM free ice cream machine has been on the fritz for a bit.  That's going to continue to be the case for the next couple of weeks, I think, as I deal with some work issues and some personal stuff.  I may throw some stuff up in the mean time, but I promise:  when I come back there's going to be an epic-length überpost.

Not Feelin' It

Another free ice cream machine update.

I've been spending a lot of hours on jobsites recently, with corresponding 12+ hour days and/or being out of town.  The last hotel I stayed at, I asked the desk clerk what I needed to get logged onto their WiFi network.  "Luck," she said.

She wasn't kidding.  Two days with only my iPhone for internet access.  (I could make a Phillip Seymour Hoffman joke here, but I'm not that tasteless.  Really.  No, really.)

As a consequence, I've been reading more - not up to the levels I have maintained in the past, but more than I've managed over the previous few months.  Over just the last week I finished Harvey Silverglate's Three Felonies a Day:  How the Feds Target the Innocent, Stephen Hunter's The Third Bullet, and I blasted through Marko Kloos' Lines of Departure Sunday and Monday.  I read his short-story Lucky Thirteen at lunch today.

Now, at my wife's insistence, I am starting Divergent, by Veronica Roth.

The stack on my headboard keeps getting taller.

And the tumbleweeds blow through this blog.

[tap] [tap] Is This Thing On?

Uh, hi! 

I guess I'm supposed to pay attention to this blog thing here. Sorry about that. I've been pretty busy the last several days.  Regular content may resume in a day or six.

FAIL!

The first rule of blogging is "post something every day." 

Yeah, right.

I've been really busy with work and some extracurricular activities and haven't had much of an urge to put pixel to flatscreen recently, so sorry about that.  I'm even sorrier to admit that things don't look to improve much in the near future, either, so once again the free ice cream machine is on the fritz.

Things will resume when they resume.  Not making any promises at this point.

Ice Cream Machine is Broken

Sorry about the recent lack of posting, especially original content.  I'm working on an überpost on political civility, but it'll be a while before it's done.  The link-hunting is like drinking from a fire hose again, and each click takes me on a wiki-wander into Never-Neverland.

I'm reminded why I don't write these things as often anymore as I used to.

So, for your entertainment, please let me point you to Texts from Superheroes.  One of these made me literally laugh until tears came, and there are PAGES of them!

NO BLOG FOR YOU!

I'm absolutely swamped at work, so there won't be an update here probably until Saturday at the earliest.  Sorry about that, but the free ice cream machine is on the fritz.  Enjoy the archives.  Read the old comment threads!  Ah, the memories...

Falling Down on the Job

First rule of blogging:  Post Something Every Day.

FAIL!
I've been busy with work.  Three days in a row in Phoenix, leaving at 0500 and not getting home until well after 1700.  Too burned out to post.

Free ice cream machine is on the blink.  Read the archives or somebody else.  I'll get back to this thing sooner or later.

UPDATE:

From the comments to this post.  I'll just leave this here:



Thanks.  I needed that.

Must be Something in the Air

...like, pollen.

I feel another Überpost coming on.  I think this one will be pretty long.  Content will be light in the interim.  The Free Ice Cream Machine is set to "LOW."

Ice Cream Machine's Broken

Sorry, I've been pretty busy, and too tired to blog when I get home.  Maybe this weekend I'll get around to posting something. 

Well, THAT was Fun!

Monday: 400 miles, 16 hours.

Tuesday: 160 miles, 13 hours.

Wednesday: another 160 miles, 19 hours.

48 hours in three days.  And I'm on salary.

I'm kinda tired.  And I have three days of accumulated stuff to catch up on.  Oh boy!  No blog for you!

Busy

No free ice cream for you.  I'm out of town on a job, and it looks like I'll be busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest for the next several days.  On the plus side, I've got an überpost brewing in the back of my head that might get out in the next week or six.  On the minus side, it won't be upbeat and inspirational. 

In good news, it looks like I'm going to be able to go to the upcoming Dallas area blogshoot on April 21. Another opportunity to meet fellow bloggers and shoot guns! Gas expenses will be stiff, but what the hey. The Mustang gets pretty good mileage.

Anybody else from Arizona going? I'm planning on driving over in one day on Friday the 20th, and taking it easy coming back, Sunday and Monday the 22nd & 23rd. It's about 15 hours each way. (Same as Reno, interestingly enough...)

I haven't been to DFW area since 2004. It'll be nice to go back.

A Year's Worth of WTF in One Sitting

Don't ask me to explain it:

This WAS Me, Last Week

I'm out sick for a couple of days, and WTF?!?

On top of that, I'm buried in work. Normal blogging to resume some time in April, probably. I'll post what I can, when I can.

Oh, and if you're interested, the next Bowling Pin match is Sunday, March 11. Hopefully the tables will all remain standing this time.

Traveling

I'm flying to Houston, Texas today and will be in meetings most of tomorrow.  Dinner Friday night with a couple of bloggers (I hope) and returning to Tucson on Saturday.  Saturday night I've got a family obligation, so needless to say blogging will be light.  There's an überpost simmering on a back burner though, that I hope to hit "Publish" on in a week or so.

Meanwhile, the free ice cream machine is on the fritz.

I'm Just Not Feelin' It

Free ice-cream machine is on the fritz.  Busy reading and doing other stuff.  Backlog of post ideas is building up, (thanks for the emails!) but I just cannot find the mood to sit down and start writing.

Later, hopefully.

Slacking

I've not been blogging all that much recently, and what I have been doing is "all linky, no thinky" stuff.  There has been, obviously, a lot to write about, but for various reasons I won't go into here, I haven't felt the urge necessary to sit, think, and write.

Sorry about that.  I know that a lot of people come by here looking for free ice cream, and I haven't been delivering.

That doesn't mean, however, that I've not been paying attention. I currently have a list of no less than 31 links to stuff under the heading of "topics for blog posts," and probably half of those are for one single überpost.

Part of me doesn't have the urge, but some other part does.

I've got some errands to run today, and some other things to take care of, but I thought I'd throw up a couple of things just to keep your attention.  First up, the Quote of the Day from 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, commenting on the book Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America by Walter Olson:

Every year I hire as law clerks some of the best and brightest law students in the country, and spend a year wringing out of them all the wrong-headed ideas their law professors taught them. Now I know why.

My stack of books hasn't gotten significantly shorter (I keep adding to it), but this one may need to go on it.  If you're interested, here's a podcast with the author of the book.

Second,  the subject of our failed education system comes up again in a piece at Shrinkwrapped, Oh No, Are Kidz Can't Lurn. I've covered this topic before (most recently here) - colleges forced to mandate "remedial" classes for incoming freshmen who are completely unprepared for the academic demands of a university. It used to be that a high school diploma meant you were ready to enter the workforce. Now all it means is that you attended enough classes to not be kicked out for truancy. (Do they still do that? Kick out students for truancy?)

The City University of New York has found that three-quarters of incoming freshmen are unprepared. That's 75% of the successful graduates of primary and secondary school systems.  At least in Arizona it's only a third.

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.  Then put Dr. Sugata Mitra in charge of rebuilding.

And finally, a word about "unintended consequences."  Hybrid cars that require batteries made from materials mined in remote locations without environmental restriction; fluorescent lightbulbs that contain toxic mercury, don't last anywhere near as long as advertised, and require hazmat disposal; "low-flow" toilets that use only one gallon per flush, but have to be flushed three or four times if you want the bowl clean for the next use.  Well, the New York Times has discovered the concept now, and in an opinion piece by John Tierney uses "the rebound effect" to lobby for higher taxes rather than "energy efficiency"  mandates.

I think he must be a fan of Cass Sunstein and his "Nudge" theory of behavior modification through taxation. Regardless, it was an interesting thing to see in the NYT, the admission:

"Efficiency mandates have become feel-good mantras that politicians invoke," Mr. (Sam) Kazman (of the Competitive Enterprise Institute) said. "The results of these mandates have ranged from costly fiascos, such as once-dependable top-loading washers that no longer wash, to higher fatalities in cars downsized by fuel-efficiency rules. If the technologies were so good, they wouldn't need to be imposed on us by law."

No matter what laws are enacted, people are going to find ways to use energy more efficiently — that's the story of civilization. But don't count on them using less energy, no matter how dirty their clothes get.

Not quite another QotD, but close.

Sorry, Sorry

I'm having a great time playing at a message board. Target-rich environments are such fun! But time consuming. (All that cut-n-paste!)

Damned Little Linky, No Thinky

Content here at TSM has been admittedly thin of late.  Sorry.  I'm working on a piece that is long, involved, filled with links and graphs and quotes...


...and is thoroughly harshing my mellow.


It'll be a few days.

In the mean time, chew on this:  Gun laws, access and background checks must be re-examined

That's from the one remaining daily paper in this town. Yeah, they're revving up the "gun control" engines again.  By all means, read the comments.

I Got Nothin'

Not precisely true.  There are several things I should be posting about, but I can't work up the enthusiasm to actually do it.  Sorry, but the free ice cream machine's busted.  Try again tomorrow.