- Girlie Bear began raking leaves today. So it has come to this……
- Today, my attitude at the office was probably best described as “coldly professional”.
- It didn’t start that way.
- I forced that on myself to keep from getting fired.
- Note to co-workers: If I’m sitting in my cubicle with my back to the door, my lunch is still on the desk at 12:30, and I’ve set my instant messenger to “I will hurt your ancestors if you bother me”, poking fun at me for having my headphones on and not answering when you wanted to ask me if I was going to watch the game tonight isn’t welcome.
- I was listening to Warbound on audiobook today, and it occurred to me just how rich a universe Larry Correia has created. I was thinking about how I’d like to hear the stories of the Knights of New York, or that a European author ought to write a few books about the European knights and their struggles with the Soviets.
- Summer is officially over. Pumpkin ice cream is available again.
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on October 2, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/02/musings-84/
Movie Quotes – Day 275
If they’re more advanced than us, they should be nearer the creator for that reason. No real attempt has been made to communicate with them, you know? — War of the Worlds
Technological and societal advancement does not mean moral advancement. Neither does living in ignorance and squalor. What makes someone a better person is how they act toward others, not what they have or what they know. A primitive who treats someone as a guest and cares for them is just as good as an astronaut who does the same.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 2, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/02/movie-quotes-day-275/
100 Years On – Vistula
In October, 1914, the Germans made the first of several attempts to take Warsaw, in what is today Poland. The Russians had taken a defeat at Tannenberg, but had been able to soundly defeat the Austrians in Galicia. In order to keep the Russians from exploiting their gains to the south and east, the Germans pushed two armies forward.
The clash between the combined German and Austrian forces and the Russian army pushed the Russians back almost to Warsaw. The Germans got to the Vistula, but were forced back, and had returned to their original positions by the end of October.
Russia had taken what would have been a mortal blow to many other nations at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes. It had been able to shove the Austrians back, however, and even after being attacked by superior German forces in front of Warsaw, were able to push them back as well. The Eastern Front was one of more movement than the Western, but the situation was very much the same: massive attacks against enemies, followed by counter-attacks, then a return to the status quo.
What we can learn from this is that so long as someone has the means to resist, they can still be in the fight. Russia, by the standards of earlier wars, had no business in continuing the fight, but she kept at it. Being able to soak up damage and then dish it out kept all of the powers in the Great War going for years.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 2, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/02/100-years-on-vistula/
Book Review – The Grey Man: Payback
In a follow-up to last year’s Vignettes, Jim Curtis, who blogs at Nobody Asked Me, has come out with “The Gray Man: Payback“. This novel picks up a few months after the end of Vignettes, with John Cronin and his family getting ready for the marriage of Jesse, his granddaughter, and Aaron. Here’s the blurb from Amazon:
Deputy Sheriff John Cronin and his granddaughter, Jesse, are preparing for Jesse’s upcoming wedding to her Marine when the Cartel decides to murder some South Texas cops as a payback for arresting their drug smugglers. They send a hit squad to kill Cronin, Jesse, and everyone close to the family. The only problem?
They missed the old man.
Leaving his badge behind, John Cronin, Francisco and a few others head south to teach them a lesson about what old school western justice really means.
Yeah, it’s a story of revenge, and Curtis does an excellent job telling the yarn. This book is better than the first one, and I loved the first one. The characters of John Cronin and Fransisco are especially well done, and as the story goes on, they become more and more three-dimensional.
This book is a page turner. Don’t be surprised if you read it in one sitting. The story flows very well, and Curtis does an excellent job at tying up the story threads in the end. I give this one of the highest compliments I can when I say that I would feel comfortable giving this book, which is in no way geared toward children, to my teenagers. Curtis makes the story real and gritty without being vulgar or graphic.
If you’re looking for a good book to read while you enjoy a couple of fingers of bourbon on a cool night, try this one out.
Disclaimer: I have known the author for several years, and consider him a friend. I was a beta reader for this book, but I also bought the final copy that I used for this review.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 1, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/01/book-review-the-grey-man-payback/
Movie Quotes – Day 274
Well, that Spirit ain’t worth spit without a little exercise. — Pale Rider
Faith without works is impotent. Works without faith gain little. You have to have both. If you climb up on a hot rock and regard the universe with detachment, at best, you help only yourself. If you immerse yourself fully in the suffering of the world, you lose the perspective to see the beauty of creation around you.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 1, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/10/01/movie-quotes-day-274/
Thoughts on the Day
- Is it bad parenting to start giving a dramatic rendition of a Shakespeare soliloquy while yoursix year old is crying crocodile tears over being told to clean up his mess?
- I’m asking for a friend. A friend who was showing the child a good example of emoting while acting.
- Someday, I’m going to look back on today and laugh. When that happens, evacuate the area and call for someone to take me away.
- Note to self: I am not allowed to quote from “The Damn Few” when dealing with other human beings.
- Note to self: If you are going to switch from Earl Grey tea to hot coffee, thoroughly wash the coffee cup first.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 30, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/09/30/thoughts-on-the-day-260/
Put Up or Shut Up
The city government here in Louisville is considering an increase of the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour over the next three years. While this isn’t as bad as what we’ve seen in places like Seattle, which have mandated $15 an hour, it’s got some business owners hopping. I’m not a fan of such increases, but to be honest, I don’t have skin in that game other than being one of the people who will be on the hook for higher prices to cover increased labor costs.
But if you are a business owner in Louisville, I want you to do me a favor. If you could, please look at your current staffing and what you pay that staff. Then, look at what that staffing will cost you at $10.10 an hour. Then, I want you to decide which, if any, of those positions you will be eliminating so as to cover the cost of increasing the pay of everyone that will require a raise to get to the new minimum wage.
Then, I want you to take that data and send it in a polite letter to your metro council representative and the president of the council. Explain to them exactly how many jobs at your business will be lost if the new minimum goes through. If you think you’ll have to cut too deeply into your staff to stay open, explain to them how much you give out each year in wages, as well as how much you and your employees pay in taxes. If you’d have to scale your business down in order to comply, quantify that in the amount of money that won’t be filling Louisville’s coffers. If you’ve got the time, and I know the most precious commodity a business owner has is time, take these letters directly to their offices and have a discussion with them about how this is going to impact you and your business.
If upping the minimum wage is going to have an impact on your business, now is the time to quantify it and rub their noses in it. Make them realize just what they are doing to you. They’re saying that you’re bluffing and lying about what doing this will do. Call them on it.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 30, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/09/30/put-up-or-shut-up-2/
Movie Quotes – Day 273
Listen, stupe. The first week I was in this joint, somebody stole my Red Cross package, my blanket, and my left shoe. Well, since then I’ve wised up. This ain’t no Salvation Army – this is everybody for himself, dog eat dog. — Stalag 17
Gaining trust is a hard thing. Regaining betrayed trust is almost impossible. “Forgive and forget” is a nice sentiment, but once you cross someone, you should have no expectation that past transgressions will not be considered, no matter how much others may have forgiven you.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 30, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/09/30/movie-quotes-day-273/
History is Rhyming
Pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong feel eerily familiar.
I was 18 in the spring of 1989, and was just finishing up my senior year of high school. My east Bay Area school had a pretty large population of recent Chinese immigrants or the children of Chinese immigrants, and the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing were the subject of almost all conversation. (Yep, give a high school student in the Bay Area something cultural or political to talk about, and they’ll chew it to bits). Interestingly, a few of my friends were getting updates directly from China. It seems that some of their relatives had access to fax machines that were allowed to dial out to the rest of the world, and we would hear about them as they came in. It wasn’t unusual for us to be discussing some new occurrence hours before the news got it.
To say that the crackdown in Tiananmen Square came as a shock would be an understatement. The story we got, day after day, was that the students were peaceful and that the police were only monitoring the situation or nibbling around the edges of the crowd. The violent suppression of the demonstrators, followed by trials, prison, and executions, hit our rather naive belief in peaceful change right in the gut. I’ll never forget watching some of my schoolmates quietly crying in class for days afterward.
The students in Hong Kong are following a very similar playbook to their predecessors. Relatively orderly and peaceful demonstrations in a public place where the government cannot ignore them are coupled with press coverage. Police attempts to break up the demonstrations with tear gas seem to have only added fuel to the fire. Attempts to cut the demonstrators from the outside world by blocking communications channels such as Instagram or Twitter are being thwarted by a nimble, technically minded generation of demonstrators.
Right now, if I still could, I would be checking to see what military or paramilitary units are stationed in or near Hong Kong. The next few days or weeks may get complicated very quickly. The Chinese government can either negotiate with the protesters (not gonna happen), ignore them until they give up and go away (unlikely), or it can crack down. The next few days are going to be interesting, and I fear that they may be bloody.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 30, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/09/30/history-is-rhyming-2/
Today’s Earworm
Posted by daddybear71 on September 29, 2014
https://daddybearsden.com/2014/09/29/todays-earworm-559/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 