Bring Them Home

Truth in Fiction?

He might turn the speech into the usual denunciation of traitors and thought-criminals, but that was a little too obvious, while to invent a victory at the front, or some triumph of over-production in the Ninth Three-Year Plan, might complicate the records too much.

What was needed was a piece of pure fantasy. Suddenly there sprang into his mind, ready-made as it were, the image of a certain Comrade Ogilvy, who had recently died in battle, in heroic circumstances. There were occasions when Big Brother devoted his Order for the Day to commemorating some humble, rank-and-file Party member whose life and death he held up as an example worthy to be followed.



Today he should commemorate Comrade Ogilvy. It was true that there was no such person as Comrade Ogilvy, but a few lines of print and a couple of faked photographs would soon bring him into existence.


George Orwell, "1984"

Giuliani is a fearmonger and an a**hole!!

Guess what everyone's favorite mayor is saying now? That if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, American will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11. But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped. Like the Republican who was in the White House on 9/11, dumba**?

Hoos For Hokies

This was painted on Beta Bridge in Charlottesville following the horrible events the other day at VT.



Beta Bridge is on Rugby Road, where most of the fraternities at UVa are located (either on Rugby or close by). Most often, the bridge is painted on Wednesday or Thursday nights to advertise a party at a fraternity, but some great kids at UVa decide to switch it up a little bit.

Meanwhile

Let's not forgot about the other horrible deaths this week. Close to 200 Iraqis were killed yesterday by bombs in Baghdad, over 200 Americans have been killed since February 1st of this year.

Mmm, beer and pizza

I figured we all need something to laugh at today, after the horrible events in Blacksburg (props to Deadspin).



The best part of this clip, other than the slo-motion replay, is how much fun the announcers are having talking about it.

My prayers are with Blacksburg

The latest addition

Say hello to Ronin Orion Batacharia, the newest addition to our multicultural clan, and my 2nd nephew. He was born 3 weeks ago and is my FW's sister's 1st born. His Dad is a math professor and his mom is getting her PhD in Clinical Psych. I'll make sure to teach him to throw and catch - Lord knows his parents won't be able to!

Sometimes It Snows In April

Prince was right. Just woke up, and this was outside our window. It's April 7th folks. It was 81 degrees at the beginning of the week!

It's a marathon

But my man's running a great race. Obama raised $25 million, with over 100,000 donors. He had as many online donors (50,000) as HRC had total (she raised $26 million). Also, he refused to take any money from lobbyists or PACs. Damn!!

Early morning April 4

Shots rang out in a Memphis sky.

She's too Cool!!

I've always like Alanis Morissette, but now I'm in full blown awe! Check this out:

Spring is here, at least for a couple of days

80 degrees today and tomorrow, then 50's and 40's for the rest of the week. Better take advantage of the weather while I can. Think I'll take the dog to our favorite pub, sit outside with a pint or two and just enjoy ourselves.

Shift Happens

Saw this today during a meeting at work.

This Ad Actually Made Me Cry

Austin, Day 2

So my bag showed up this morning at 9:00 am, an hour before my presentation. Needless to say, by the time I got there, I was pretty nervous. In fact, I was sweating like Marion Barry, and had to keep mopping my brow with a handkerchief to keep the sweat from dripping in my eyes. Sexy, eh? But my presentation actually went very well - though it lasted almost 5 hours! The participants all came up to me afterwards to thank me and tell me that I made a pretty difficult subject easy to understand. Tomorrow, I'm meeting with them again to see if what I taught them stuck, and to actually implement it into their actual work. I plan to actually check out some Austin music spots tomorrow night, and then I fly home early Wednesday morning. I can't wait to get home and see the FW and Kaleb. The FW's been out of town since last Thursday. Her sister had a baby and she drove out to Kentucky to visit, and is headed home tomorrow.

Austin

I've made it to Austin. My bags, however, haven't. Southwest seems to have forgotten to unload about half of the bags from my flight, and they're now on their way to El Paso, then LA and Oakland. They say they'll get to me tonight. I hope so, because I have a presentation at 10:00 am.

I'm still here

Hey folks. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I've been alot busier than usual lately. I'm headed to Austin, TX for work and Sunday - giving a big presentation that I've been preparing for. It's also the start of soccer season, so I've been getting myself back in shape by playing pick-up as much as possible.

This Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, and for the 1st time since we've been together, I won't be spending it with my FW. She left this morning to visit her sister who just had a little boy. That now makes it Nieces 5 - Nephews 2. I've got to do double duty for the family since she won't be here. It's gonna be cold and blustery, but I think I'll somehow survive. The plan is to meet friends at The Big Jig, a huge block party downtown with beer, food and music. If it gets too cold, I'm sure I'll find a nice, cozy (as in packed to the rafters) pub to warm up in.

Men vs. Women

glumbert.com - How to Shower: Women vs. Men

Uncle Vance

My Uncle Vance died last week. He's my 3rd family member in little over a year to pass away. This is gonna sound coarse, but at least this wasn't a surprise. He'd been fighting cancer for a long, long time and was able to make his peace and leave on his own terms. Uncle Vance was a WW2 veteran, and I used to love staying up late and listen to him tell stories about the war, while he and my father and their brothers and sisters played cards, drank and smoked. He was always fun to be around - I can't remember a time that he didn't make me laugh. One story in particular will always stand out - how he beat up Hitler during the war (his actual words were that he kicked Hitler's ass). As a 3rd grader, I couldn't wait to tell my teachers that one. And yes, I got in trouble for arguing with them when they told me my Uncle hadn't beat up Hitler (he did, in fact, beat up his racist sergeant and spent a good deal of time in the brig during the push towards Germany).