If you would have told me 10 years ago that I'd be going to any rodeo four years running, I'd think you were loony.  Especially one sponsored by the OGRA.  We first went with the YOTSO kids in 2004, then a couple years manning a PFLAG booth.  This year we staffed the Aid Walk table.  It was fun.  It's weird how many people we bump into maybe twice a year, each of us barely remembering the other.  I think the event is becoming more popular each year.  I don't think there were as many vendors this year, but their where a lot of people.

Who would you tell if you spent $70 dollars on a hat?  Everyone, of course.  You might be thinking, big deal, it must be a nice hat and I'm sure it was worth it.  You need to remember, I'm a cheap bastard.  It is a nice hat though, it's a Tilly and it fits.  I haven't had a hat that fits for . . . hmm, well maybe never.  Of course, I've never owned a hat with an owners guide either.

Went to Mom's Sunday.  I got up at five and drove to Claremore.  We left Claremore for Kaw City about nine.  Spent 5 minutes in the rain at the cemetery, (by the way Diana, all your cows are dead.) then drove back to Claremore.  Mom and I cleaned up around the yard a little bit.  We got the brush pile really burning just in time for down power, then I drove home and went to bed.  Great day.

Today, Monday, we got a new dog and that's about it.  Hope you're all having a great Memorial Day Weekend.

This blog has a sarcasm rating of Zero.

Jerry Falwell is dead.  Yeah!  That'll piss some people off.

For me he was an enemy in a very literal sense.  No, I never met him, never spoke with him and never exchanged a letter.  As an athiest and a gay rights activist he was the enemy just as Hitler was the enemy of countless allied soldiers who never met him.  Compare Hitler and Falwell?  Why not.  Falwell was deliberitely and passionately set on destroying the country I love.  He did not believe in personal liberty, he believed in everyone should be subject to his own morality.  I considered listing some of his myriad of hateful quotes, but the news has not been easy on him.  If you want a list you can easily find it.

Despite all this, I do have a bit of respect for him.  From nothing, he organized millions and made himself into a politically powerful man.  Imagine if that leadership could have been used for love instead of hate.

Reported by Reference.com

1983 - Interior Secretary James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the 4th of July celebration on the Washington Mall, saying rock and roll bands attract the "wrong element."

A futurist is a person who looks at existing trends and technologies and projects them into the future.  Hence, the futurist makes predictions about life in the future.  I've been thinking a lot about my thoughts on the future and day to day life about 50 years from now.

Cell phones are wildly popular.  Very few people don't have one now.  They are replacing watches and low end cameras.  They have replaced little books full of phone numbers.  There is no reason to think they won't soon hold date planners and address lists.  No doubt, they will continue to evolve into more and more powerful decives.

Personal Assistant 2030 -

As Bob drives home from work he hears a voice in his head.  It iminates from the earpiece that he is so comfortable with he doen't even take out a night.  "Your Mom's on the phone, you haven't talked to her for a week and she sounds a little anxious.  Do want to take the call?." 

The voice is seductive to say the least.  Bob's guilty secret?  He has created an entire fantasy persona for "Lita".  He pictures a pretty latin girl he saw in a magazine once as he answers.  "Ya, you better let her through."  A moment later he's listening to his Mom's latest visit to the doctor.  It has more to do with his looks than the check up and soon she's going on about family gossip.  "I'm sorry," Lita interupts. "Your boss is holding for a project update."  Bob smiles a bit, "I'm sorry Mom, I've got to go."  A few months ago he was complaining about his Mother's gossip and they came up with a plan that if she mentioned his cousin Sandy, she should cut in.

"What to you want for dinner Bobby," she asks a few minutes later.  After he confirms pizza, she contacts the local resaurant's computer and orders his favorite.  He's through the drive through and on his way home in less than a minture.  Lita paid online and even remembered to get him a few extra packets of cheese.  As they walk in the door of his apartment she's turning on the T.V. to his usual channel and adjusting the thermostat.

Bob has been working with his Personnal Assistant for two years.  He almost got rid of it the first week, because it was doing nothing as advertised.  Then it started to learn.  It knows the favorite flower of every women he knows.  It knows what events he wants to be reminded of, and what games he just wants score updates.  Six months ago he dumped a girl because she didn't like it having such a flirtatious voice.  He's not insane and he knows it's just a machine, but then he wouldn't give up his car for a girl either.

The Personal Assistant is not artificial life.  It doen't have feelings or a survival instinct, it's not going to develop a pychosis and try to kill Bob someday.  It is simply a computer.  A computer the size of a modern cell phone with 120 gigs of memory and five gigs of processing speed.  It's software is written so it can learn from it's owner, but it will never learn to love.  At least not this generation.

Best news of the year?

Mars Global Surveyor has found proof near positive of lots of ice on Mars.  Enough that if it all melted, it would cover the planet in water.  Where there is life there is water.  I can't wait to see what happens next.

I think as a person looks at their life they see it in stages.  At least I do.  It might be split up by moves, or spouses, or medical issues, or anything that in time defines a life.  My table of contents would look something like this.

Chapter one.  Birth to 9th grade.  There was nothing special about my childhood.  I had grea role models (my parents) and I had good friends.  I never had any worries.  I also had no real responsibility.

Chapter two.  9th grade to high school graduation.  Somewhere around Thanksgiving of my Freshman year I decided to do better.  I really don't know what came over me.  I decided to make all A's.  I started doing my homework as soon as it was assigned.  Nightly stuff I did as soon as I got home, if not on the bus.  I pretty much quit watching TV  (not much of a loss for anyone who remembers TV of the early 80's).  I started helping more around the house, etc.  Like I said, I don't know what prompted the change, but I'm sure my parents loved it.

Chapter three.  College.  Nine years of on again of again work, study and gooffing off got me a peice of paper I may never use.  I'm glad I got it, but the most valuable thing I got was the best group of freinds anyone could ever ask for.

Chapter four:  1995 to 2000.  The beginning of my working life.  That's about it.  I worked.

Chapter five:  Krista  I set out on a wife hunt late in 1999 and I tracked, baited and bagged one.  I got a good one too.

The inspiration for this post is the possibility I've entered a new chapter.  I'm not sure when it started.  It may become absorbed into chapter five someday.  If it survives the test of time, the title of the chapter will be Networking.  I still have most of my great college friends, but I've added a lot lately.  They best part is that there is starting to be some crossover, between the college crew and the new groups.

I'll keep you posted.

Came across an interesting tidbit the other day.  For as far back as we can measure (10 years) average temps have been going up on Mars.  It is believed this is due to increased solar activity.  No one is claiming that all the Earth's warming is due to the same thing, but the estimate I heard was about 20%.  I also heard, and presumeably this is related, that the projections for Earth's warming have been scaled back.