I-Mans car

Had a request to see I-Man's car he buit at FAO Swartz...well here it is, with a few dings...notice the lack of mirrors...casualties of imagination, i do believe, as well as the scratches. It is a Ferrari Enzo.

new addition, part 2

The twins and I ran down to Cola to take a quick peek at their new cousin....

new addition...

Oh..i forgot to mention...I'm sure they will officially announce sometime..but we have a new addition to the family...Uncle Wes and Aunt Ashley are proud parents of Madison Elizabeth Moore, 8lbs, 6oz's...I'm going down tomorrow (Monday) with the twins to see her. I'll drop a pic on here soon...

National Convention....It's FANTASTIK!!!

Well, I really dont know what to think of this past convention. There was a lot of dissapointment with the actives at Kappa Beta, in that NO-ONE showed up from the chapter...well, I did...and Melanie Muldrow, but she is at Tuskegee now...so she kinda doesnt count. I was kinda expectin several people there......So...I got there a couple of days late and am immediately bombarded with "Where's KB?" questions...I'm like.."Uh...Hmmm.... they should be here. No one has mentioned to me that they wouldnt". But..yep...no one showed so I ended up sitting as Kappa Beta Delegate. Kinda sad and pathetic....

But..while I was angry, I think I have graduated to being more sad than angry. And while I will address the issues that are underlying, I think that its sad that they miss out on these opportunities.... Next Convention(National) is in Phoenix, in 2009

Frat stuff

... @ National Convention for Kappa Kappa Psi. I was asked to update the master roster of Kappa Beta, so i have the list of all brothers who have been at Clemson...175 brothers have been initiated, and looking at some of these names brings brings back memories, i tell ya...

Well and generously spoken...

listening to the Boston Brass last night here at National Convention, and I was struck by one thing. Music is an awesome thing. And I wish i could still play everyday. I think upon all my friends, and they are all connected to me by music...sigh...

"Ahh...music, a magic far beyond all we do here."

• character Albus Dumbledore in JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the U.S.)

The Fog of War

I sat and watched about 80% of a documentary on HDNet called "The Fog of War", a movie/documentary about Robert McNamara, who was Secretary of Defense for Kennedy, then Johnson during part of the Vietnam War. It was pretty good and its always interesting to listen to someone who was so intrumental in history, especially when hearing in his voice, the regret he has over what happened and the choices that were made. He, of course, has a book...and I think I might put that on my Xmas list on Amazon

there were 11 lessons that McNamara discusses in his book and the movie, and the book was written in 1996. These lessons are frakkin eerie, especially given our current quandry in Iraq. I have taken liberty to post them below... read them and transpose those thoughts to current day events....

The eleven lessons in McNamara's 1996 book In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam:

1. We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
4. Our judgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces and doctrine…
6. We failed as well to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
7. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
8. After the action got under way and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening and why we were doing what we did.
9. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
10. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
11. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.

Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues.

Now...given that I am somewhat on both sides of the fence gieven the entire Iraq fiasco, I did find this somewhat thought provoking. sigh....

If it doesn't matter who wins or loses, why keep score - Worf

The week that was...finally back to home, then down to Cola and the lake for a day...at any rate, the twins had fun and the week finally came to a close...

True friends are a reward, leaving them is the penalty of life. - Faryal Khan Kharal

leavin out today. Originally had planned to bolt late last night, but with my work plans changed, we will be boltin here midday, with arrival back in SC by midnightish or so...

...i must admit that I mentally put a lot of thought into seeing people i havent seen in a while, especially friends. And it is somewhat sad when we have to depart. It always seems to be so short, and... sudden. its like..."OK...gotta go...good seein ya...see ya in a year " so much is unsaid, that perhaps doesnt have to be said. But...I just really dont like that part of visiting....

..saying goodbye sucks because you really dont get the time to say/do/talk about everything you want to... ...

Bring us your huddled masses...

...a somewhat rainy, foggy start to the day, but it did stop rainin, so we caught a taxi to the Statue of Liberty.... rode the ferry, came back, walked up to Canal Street and looked at all the"hot" stuff we could buy where I-Man got a "genuine" Argentina Soccer Jersey for soccer practices this fall, and Rylee got a small wallet, went by the Ground Zero site, did pizza in some random pizza place, and caught the subway back. Juniour's Cheesecake tonight for dinner...

THE CITY...

Got into New York, visited with Uncle Erik briefly... then we took the subway into manhatten, where we went to the central park zoo. nice zoo, but not as big as i imagined it would be...we saw penguins, and snakes...well... the usual stuff you would see, I guess. then I-man and Ryles got to go to FAO Swartz, where Ryles got to make her very own Barbie with a clothes design of her very own. Its a one of a kind (hmmmm...????) and they actually did a mini fashion show where her Barbie did a runway thingy, and it flashed up on the big screen Ryle's name and etc. you can see if you look closely at the pix.... I-Man got to do something similar with his very own Hotwheel that he designed himself, with the color, tires, engine, interior, etc... pretty slick...

made it!!!

Made it to Jersey yesterday morn. Spent the Day with Kristen, Michael and her son and daughter. This morn, we are eatin breakfast at a diner, then headin into the City.

a couple of random (to you) thoughts

... I have my Throwback Hank Aaron T-shirt ready to wear when Bonds breaks the homerun record. And I might actually break out my #44 1969 Throwback Braves Jersey for the occasion too. While I think it sucks Bonds is going to break the record for I think he has used steroids, I am glad to see the appreciation and the talk about Aaron and people discussing how truly great he was and him getting his due. Especially since he had to go through so much during his career.

...Replaced the headlight... got some fixflat... power converter to use laptop in car... GPS back on and batteries

Lets try this again...

Ok... tomorrow we leave for New Jersey/New York on the first big trip for the twins...take 2.

Now, I just have to hope that there is no car failure during the trip ans all will be fine. I dont see that happening as the jetta seems to be running great, as usual. I am kinda curious as to what kinda gas mileage I will get with the added weight of the twins and their stuff. Normally, I can get to New Jersey on one tank of gas with no worry or to the Lincoln Tunnel outside Manhattan. I suspect I will get a tad less, but i will still be better than 4 airplane tickets.

I have modified my expectations for the trip, with 1) seeing Kristen and new daughter, 2) Brown in Brooklyn, 3) Central Park and Central Park zoo, 4) FAO Swartz, 5) Statue of Liberty and 6) Juniors Cheesecake the only definites I expect to do. Hopefully, I will be able to see Brown's new club he is working at, if only for a moment because, well...its really not my sorta club... Jessica will probably like it more.

Once we return, I have a couple of days then it's off to Orlando for the Frat convention for 4 days. That will be interesting as several Alumni issues are set to be discussed, as well as a couple of friends of mine are running for National Office and I hope to see them win.

As i said before...check back for pix everyday as I will post a couple from our stops...

Don't hate the player, hate the game

Since the infamous incident a couple of weeks ago when we had Ipods, cell phones and stuff stolen out of our cars in our driveway, we have endeavored to have the street light replaced out on the street, and when I got home today, there was alight at the end of our driveway, which virtually completes a now circle of lights that are on around our house at night now. Its pretty much daylight outside right now.

When the lights go down in the City
And the sun shines on the bay
I want to be there in my City
Ooh, ooh - -Journey

I really dislike Summer...and I can see the Cool at the end of the Tunnel. For some reason, i can sense Fall and see it already coming.

Our thoughts define our reality

i stole this from gizmodo

"John, the kind of control you're attempting is not possible. If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us, it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories. It crashes through barriers. Painfully, maybe even… dangerously, but, and… well, there it is." Dr. Ian Malcomb

so...

Obviously...I"m stupid. But I am not the only one. Seems like there is a huge issue with my model webcam and getting it to be seen outside of my local network. Yes, while it seems like it should be a simple fix, from the looks of the forums online...it isnt. So I am wading thru all the info, lookin for the fix that I know some one will provide...

oh and this is in Beta right now...

you can go to 192.168.1.5 and go to View Video and you should see a live webcam streaming. If you dont see anything moving, dont dispair, if you look closely, you can see things moving, like the creek water flowing, etc. i will turn it on us periodically, but only like at dinner time or something. When it is sunny out, I will have it facing out out kitchen window to the inflatable pain in the rear pool we have that the kids are so in love with. So you will probably see them in it, but maybe not today, since it is supposed to only be 38 degrees or something here. Kinda strange in that we were at a baseball game a while ago and it was actually chilly. 68 degrees is what they said it was. Kinda fluky for July 2nd, I think. and the fireworks were disappointing afterward. But the game itself was way fun and they do a great job of doing different things between innings, like watermelon eating contests, or tossing t-shirts, or all sorts of stuff... Good ol wholesome family fun...

LMAO!

The Funniest Joke in the World

Voiceover: This man is Ernest Scribbler (Michael Palin), writer of jokes. In a few moments, he will have written the funniest joke in the world… and, as a consequence, he will die… laughing. (Scribbler writes his joke and dies laughing. His mother (Eric Idle) then enters the room. She is shocked by the death of her son, and seeing the paper in Scribbler's hands, she reads it, dying of laughter as well.)

. . .

Voiceover: It was a fantastic success. Over sixty thousand times as powerful as Britain's great pre-war joke [Cut to stock footage of Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich and holding up the Munich Agreement, the "this is peace in our time"-bit.], and one which Hitler just couldn't match.

[Cut to stock footage of Hitler giving a speech.]

Hitler: [subtitle] My dog's got no nose!

Soldier: [subtitle] How does he smell?

Hitler: [subtitle] Awful!

. . .

Narrator (in person): In 1945, peace broke out. It was the end of the Joke. Joke warfare was banned at a special session of the Geneva Convention, and in 1950 the last remaining copy of the joke was laid to rest here in the Berkshire countryside, never to be told again.

I got this from Wikipedia, which is quoting this fromMonty Python... I read this once, and kida looked at it, this cracked up when I visualized it.

doing some updating...

...in the process of updating some stuff. Check back on Tuesday for I am going to have the address of a webcam that will be live and streaming 24/7 from our house. Well..maybe not 24/7, but it will stream live most of the time. just be warned that while I will turn it on us at times like dinner, etc. it will usually be pointed toward some seemingly random point that i am wanting to observe. It has a motion sensor that will send me an email and video if it is triggered. I am looking to see if anyone is walking around our back yard in the wee hours of the morning.... access will be limited to those who know a certain password...one that Boh knows... oh, and I'll create another password for everyone else....

...I updated my somewhat dormant myspace page with some new pictures, and some scans of print pictures that are "throwback" pictures of some people. the myspace address is.... www.myspace.com/grandpakb ...I dont really post there often at all. Only once every 3 or 4 months, but I do take a look when i get notified of a comment or request for friend. I just dont like the format ofMyspace.

We are at July 1st, and the Braves are still lurking...heading out west for a long road trip that might make or break the season. They just need to keep winning 2 of 3 every series and they will be OK. but another prolonged 4 or 5 game lose streak will doom them.

...looking forward to seeing the twins and Jessica when they get back from the Lowstate. As I have said before, it is kinda a small releif when the kids are gone...but I am starting to see the time that i like them to be gone get shorter and shorter. I think now that they are actually "people" and makes a huge difference. While they obviously are not adults and such, conversations with them are entertaining and to hear the "learning" that they are doing with each interaction everyday is cool.

Tomorrow night is the Greenville Drive game....