I think the picture speaks for itself.

You have got to be kidding me!

You meet with the Queen of England, the head of state for our oldest and closest ally, and you give her an iPod full of photographs of her trip to the US and show tunes?

What, did his kids run out of macaroni to create pictures with or something?

Has our president finally lost his ever loving mind? I know he’s not this dumb, so it must be a psychological issue with the British.

It was bad enough he gave the British Prime Minister a bunch of DVD’s that he couldn’t watch, but to give the Queen an iPod is showing a great lack of tact and judgement.

If you wanted to give her photos of her visits to the US, then do it with some class and give her a nicely bound album that’s done professionally. At least that way she can look at them in a couple of years when the JPEG standard changes to the point that today’s digital pics don’t work.

And to give her show tunes like she was some sophomore from Wellesley who takes the train down to the city to see Rent is insulting at the very least.

I hope our cousins in Albion overlook this latest slight the next time we come to them for support on some important issue.

Well, I didn’t mean to not post for the past week, but I was having such a good time on vacation that I just didn’t have the gumption to get on here.

I spent the past 6 days doing precisely diddly over squat. Had some high expectations on what I wanted to do around the house, but none of them got done. And I had a wonderful time.

Junior Bear is out west visiting with his mother. Girlie Bear and Little Bear are at their mother’s for the rest of spring break. We spent the week just relaxing and having fun.

Weather here has been as erratic as it ever is, so some days we would go out and do stuff, and others we stayed home and had fun.

Today’s Dilbert accurately describes my attitude this week. Only problem is I can’t throw a coffee cup at people in meetings. I can only fantasize about it.

Earlier this week, I gave a presentation on an effort I’ve been working on for about 4 years to senior management. Apparently, they didn’t know just how much work I’ve been doing, and how much progress I’ve made, because they were astonished at the results I was showing them. Now they want high level talks with our corporate masters as to whether or not we want to be doing the effort anymore.

I apparently threw a hand grenade in their henhouse when I pointed out that the effort made good technical and business sense, and showed them why not doing it would be a bad idea.

Don’t get me wrong. Everyone from the local VP on down is telling me what I’ve done is great, but it goes beyond what the policy I was working under asked for. I call it exceeding the standard. Others may differ. But at least it’s got people talking about something I care about.

Thank goodness I go on vacation for the next few days. By the time I get back, all of this should be decided, one way or another.

CoWorker # 1: “How do you explain the difference between 32 bit and 64 bit OS’s to someone?”

CoWorker # 2: Several lines of technical explanation that can be confusing.

CoWorker # 1: “OK, I got that, but what if you had to explain it to one of our customers?”

DaddyBear: “When a daddy bit likes a mommy bit a whole bunch…..”

Miss Israel 2009 is a corporal in the IDF, and she’s quite the cutie.

Saw this linked to over at the Agitator

Basically, a mayor in New York feels that the police department in his city is out of control, and is trying to decide on a strategy for improving things. This may include disbanding the police department and bringing in the state police and National Guard.

I’m not sure how I feel about that, and others who are better orators and writers than me have and will continue to comment on it.

What struck me was this quote from a local politician:

Schenectady’s Corporation Counsel John Van Norden said, “If you abolish the police department you still have a need – not an obligation – but a need to police the community. You would need something in transition. Declaring martial law would be one way to bridge the gap.”

The emphasis is mine.

At least he’s being honest about it. The state has a need to provide services that keep the civil peace and order. But they have no real obligation to do so. You would have a real problem suing the county because the sheriff didn’t send out a patrol car in time to catch and stop someone about to commit a crime.

Remember, when seconds count, the police are only minutes away. And they have no obligation to come and do anything in the first place. Take care of your own, noone else has to.

Took myself to the movie on Sunday afternoon.

I’ve been wanting to see Taken since it first came out, and I seemed to scoot in just before it gets pulled out of the first run theaters. There’s nothing like being the only one the theater for a movie.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. It’s not going to go down as a classic in cinematic art, but it was a great way to spend a couple of hours, and it got me thinking after the movie was over, so it must have something on the ball.

I’m not going to spoil it for those of you that want to see it, but I’m going to talk about it. I may put a few minor details in this, but I hope I won’t ruin it.

Basically, Bryan is the divorced father of a 17 year old girl that he loves dearly. His ex and he don’t get along. He’s spent years away from home working for the government in some kind of secret organization, but is now retired. His daughter and ex talk him into letting the daughter go to Europe for the summer, where she is kidnapped. He then flies to Paris and proceeds to kill and beat people like the price was about to go up on beatings. One thing I liked is that he didn’t get into fist fights with someone and come out unscathed. He left each fight with a new bruise or limp. That’s more realistic than watching Stephen Segal beat up people for 2 hours and look like he just stepped out of a shower.

Two things that touched me:

1. At one point in the movie, the daughter and father are discussing the ground rules for her trip to Europe, which are mostly about making sure that Mom and Dad know where she is and who she’s with, and checking in with them on a very regular basis. The daughter quips that Mom thinks that Dad is paranoid because of his previous line of work. Dad makes the observation that his work made him aware of how bad the world can be, not paranoid about it.

In a lot of ways, that’s how I feel about my outlook on the world. Remember, I was as far from being a badass when I was in the Army as you can get, but since I was 18 I’ve been in a lot of places and done a lot of things that I either can’t or don’t want to talk about. I’ve seen people act badly in slums, mansions, jungles, deserts, and mountains. Basically, I’m aware that no matter where you are, you’re only a walk of a few paces away from strangers stripping your naked corpse of anything of value.

I don’t walk around expecting that every person I meet will try to hurt me, but I’m aware that any person could. I’m not ready to wall off my family in a compound, but I’m not naive enough that I don’t lock my doors and watch who’s close to me when I walk down the street.

If you’ve ever read this piece about sheep and sheepdogs, you’ll start to understand my worldview.

2. When Bryan and his ex are disagreeing about the trip to Europe, she throws the fact that he was away from home and not in constant communication during their marriage and his daughter’s life in his face. It was a low blow, and it obviously affected the father character.

Been there, done that. My first wife said almost the same thing a lot during the last year of our marriage.

Sometimes a person, be they a soldier, policeman, or whatever, needs to make a choice between the duty they signed up when they started their profession and staying home with their family. Until very recently, being deployed meant your communications to and from home were the same as they were in World War I: snail mail. Occasionally, you might be able to make a call home, but that was unpredictable and infrequent.

Luckily, it appears that has gotten better. With VOIP, email, and chat, communications with home are better for those away from home. But you’re still not physically there. I spent the majority of Junior Bear’s first few years away from home, and I know he and I missed out on a lot of things. But sometimes things that we don’t want to do have to happen. People who get bitter about these things fail to take joy from the time they have with their loved ones, and focus on the negative of them being away.

Took Girlie Bear to a Father-Daughter Dance on Friday night. A good time was had by all. She got me to dance a couple of times, and I had a good time talking basketball with a couple of her friends’ dads.

However, here’s a note to parents out there: It’s not stylish to dress your 5th grade daughter in something slinky, low cut, and backless for a father-daughter dance. It’s creepy. Stop it.