That Was Then, This Is Now

You can't say they didn't warn us.

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

HT:AoSHQ, of course.

Climate Change

Click the pic for more. NSFW.

Who Wha?

Apparently there was some sort of sporting event last Sunday.

My condolences to Mostly Cajun.

Medical Update

Today was a rough day for her. The reactions from the medicine have made her physically ill all day. I stayed home from work in case she needs anything, something that I very rarely do.

The tumor is getting bigger again and the doc has prescribed new medicine. The new medicine is oral because they are afraid that her veins are going to collapse if they continue with the intravenous chemo.

She doesn't talk about it much because she doesn't want to worry me, but I know.

The Empire Strikes Back?

Beltway Bob is at it again.

Story at Ace's.

This of course means that Palin, a former state Governor that isn't currently running for anything, is deep, deep inside the White House's OODA loop.

Milestones

Welcome home Marines. Well done.

Sherlock Holmes

I finally saw it, and I give it a rousing "meh."

Top marks for action and photography, and the actors played their parts well. As for the plot, well, at least it appears that perhaps one or two of the screenwriters have actually read one or two of Sir Arthur's stories because one or two tidbits made their way in.

One such tidbit is the study of a pocketwatch. In the written stories ("The Sign of Four" to be exact) the watch belonged to Watson's older brother, an heirloom that was passed from his father and then on to the good doctor himself at his older brother's demise. In the movie the watch belonged to a "ginger midget" who was found dead in his first appearance.

Downey's Holmes is a bit of a bumbler and not as aware of his surroundings as the fabled detective from the stories, and Jude Law's Doctor Watson tends to be a bit surly throughout (which again is not a part of the canon, although the Watson in the stories had his bouts of petulance to be sure). Both are portrayed as active men; Downey's Holmes is shown to be a skilled boxer and knowledgeable of the martial arts and Law's Doctor Watson is an intelligent man who shows an ability to deductively reason things out for himself, all of which do fit the stories.

There are really only two parts of the movie that I found objectionable. One is that Holmes did not know the soon-to-be Mrs. Watson when in fact Miss Mary Morstan was introduced to Doctor Watson by way of being the client in one of his adventures with Sherlock Holmes, "The Sign of Four" once again being the story. Although a trifling difference it is a glaring one, and comes in early enough that it interrupted the flow of the rest of the movie for me.

The second, and most annoying, was the portrayal of Irene Adler as a master criminal. She is also hinted at being Sherlock's lost love, which as any reader of the stories knows is quite impossible. "The woman" was in fact an American opera star, and a bit of an adventuress herself, having been one of the few adversaries to outwit Holmes ("A Scandal in Bohemia"). I find it deplorable what the movie has done to her.

On a side note, the character of Irene Adler is expanded upon greatly in a series of books by author Carole Nelson Douglas. If you are a fan of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, it might be worth your time to check them out as well.

Of course I understand that some changes have to be made to tell the story well, because you can't fit four novels and 56 short stories into one movie. The changes to the two characters described above, relatively minor in the case of Mary Morstan but rather substantial in the case of Irene Adler, were the ones I found most distracting, and I wish the screenwriters could have found a better way to fit them in.

All in all the movie is an enjoyable waste of a couple of hours as long as you don't get too distracted by comparing it to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famed detective stories.

State Of The Union

Thatisall.

Picture shamelessly stolen from Mostly Cajun.

Loud And Clear

Kevin has a new post up (well, it's a couple of days old but I had not been by there for a while) that is an enjoyable read.

So what are you still doing here? Go enjoy!

And It Continues

The snow is back.

I just cleaned that car off not five hours ago, and if you look at the post below you can see where the driveway clearing was in progress.

The dog has decided that he does not like that funny white stuff, it sticks to his feet and makes them cold. I had to shovel a path for him (that or find "presents" in the house).

He's as spoiled as his owner, I think.

My plans for tonight have not otherwise changed.

Aftermath

The snow started before Boy went to bed, and he was excited. Dad, not so much. The snowfall continued through the night and into the early morning hours when, as expected, it turned into sleet and freezing rain. That's the part that Dad was particularly looking forward to, you bet.

The snow accumulated three inches where there was pavement and six inches where there was not. This picture was taken 12 hours after the snow had stopped, so I don't know if it had melted any during the day. What I do know is that I have not had to shovel snow in a long time.

But that's why I have fine young sons!

I called my parents who still live in Iowa and told them about our massive snowstorm. My mother gleefully informed me that the storm had gone south of them into Missouri so they didn't get any snow out of it. My dad reminisced about a snowstorm so bad that they didn't even bother plowing both sides of the road, so there was only a single lane highway for the last 20 miles of the trip (we had gone to Grandmother's house that weekend and gotten 24 inches).

The power is on, no one has to work tonight, so I have no reason to be out and about (I am the designated chauffeur whenever the winter weather hits). My plans for tonight include the following items:

Have a great night everyone!

Where's The Global Warming?

I've been working like an idiot the past few days, my counterpart on the other night shift had to take some vacation days or lose them so I filled in for him while he was gone. The first night I have off we get The Big One, Jan 2010 Edition.

Oh well, I have beer, firewood and cheese dip. Let it snow!

Home

I have never really been from anywhere.

I was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but that's not my home. I was raised in Clarinda, Iowa with a short nine month side trip to Houston, Texas. Neither of them are home either.

In my Navy service I lived in Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and Florida. I visited dozens of places around the globe, both in the US and not, and none of those places were home, either.

I currently reside in North Carolina, but that's not home. It will do for now, because that's where she is, and wherever she is home is there also. But that has not always been the case.

I can't really explain my feelings on the subject, but it has always seemed to me that life was transitory, and that wherever I was at the moment I was sure to be somewhere else later on.

Maybe some day I will find that mystical place, but until then I am an American, and wherever the flag flies that will be home.

Wishes

Tonight my ten year old and I broke the Christmas turkey wishbone. I've heard both ways, that the wish is granted for the long side or for the short side. I told him that means we both get our wishes.

I told him that he couldn't say what he wished for because it might not come true. He said he didn't think it would anyway.

Mine won't either. I think we wished for the same thing.

He told me he was worried about Mom. I told him that I was, too.

We spend a lot of time not talking about what's happening, but it's never very far from the surface. Tonight as we were talking about something different all together the subject of our eldest daughter moving up from Florida came up. She wants Eldest Daughter here so that she can spend time with her, because she doesn't feel as if she got enough time with her own mother. She misses her mother terribly.

"I don't want to die" she blurted out. "I don't want you to, either" I said, and then we cried into each other's arms for a while. That breaks one of my cardinal rules, not to let her see how it's affecting me. She knows anyway.

About that time the eldest son walked in to talk about something else. He has great timing. We then went back to our usual not talking about it.

But it's still there.

You Don't Professionalize

Until You Nationalize!

I'm sure we all feel much safer now.

Hell Freezes Over

Leftists, Democrats hardest hit. Go and read. Here's a teaser.

"President Bush deserves our respect, not our betrayal." Now go read the rest.

While you are at it, look upon this and wonder. It's sometimes incredible how much difference a year can make. Now consider that the linked article above was written by, and the linked site is owned by, a guy that was part of John F'n Kerry's legal team in 2004.

And congratulations to Senator Scott Brown, (R) MA. Further proof of snowballs in Hades.

Senator Scott Brown, (R)MA. Just because I don't think seeing that is ever going to get old, or less amazing.

HT: Ace of Spades HQ

Eh...

“Even before Massachusetts and that race was on the radar screen, we prepared for the process of using reconciliation,” said Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“Why would you hand the keys to the car back to the same guys whose policies drove the economy into the ditch and then walked away from the scene of the accident?” Van Hollen said. “For the Republicans to say vote for us and bring back the guys who got us into this mess in the first place, I don’t think it’s a winner.”

Yeah. Someone should probably tell that guy that mentioning Massachusetts Senators and car wrecks in the same article may not be such a good idea...

Fair Winds

Captain Pliny G. Holt, Naval Aviation pioneer and oldest living Naval Aviator, passed on January 4, 2010. His father and grandfather were the founders of the Caterpillar Company, having invented the treaded track. He was also a model railroader and model ship builder.

Fair winds and following seas, Captain.

Avatar

I finally saw it today.

Yes, it's Dances with Wolves set on another planet, with the exception that the hero stays afterwards.

Yes, it's the "evil greedy corporation" and their paid mercenaries against the indigenous peoples.

I didn't really find it overly preachy, it's just put out there as a statement of fact. They have what we want, we have nothing they want to trade for it, so now we fight for it. We try to take it away from them, they try to keep it.

I would have liked to see a bit more development into why this "unobtanium" is such a valued mineral, that might have explained why the humans were so dead set on "obtanium-ing" it. I would also have liked to see an explanation of why we couldn't have mined the ore without destroying their planet's surface, with the technology displayed in the film I'm sure that there could have been a way. It can be done with coal and oil (although strip mining for coal is more efficient, which is why it's done that way) so I see no reason why it couldn't have been done with this as well. It would have made for a rather short story, though.

Other than that, it was a classic "you have what I want, we can trade or fight" and since we have nothing to trade that you want, Fight's On! If it had been a human world vs space aliens there probably wouldn't have been as much furor over it. After all, who felt sorry for the aliens in "Independence Day" when they got blown up? Same story, different point of view is all.

The story was fast moving, the visuals were stunning, all in all it was an enjoyable experience.

CPR Class

And now I am CPR qualified again for the first time since my instructor's card ran out in 2006. Class A only, which is adult CPR, and only at the provider level, but that's fine with me.

About the only thing different from when I used to teach the class is now there are 30 compressions per 2 breaths instead of 15 and 2.

Twenty five years ago when I got my first provider qual it was 5 and 1, then it was 15/2 for a single rescuer and 5/1 for two. Later on it was 15/2 for both single and double rescuers, then it was single only and if there were two rescuers they swapped out when one got tired.

Finding hand positions went from finding the notch and going two fingers up to finding the center of the chest at the nipple line. It's easier to find your position that way, which was the point of the change.

Automatic External Defibrillators are also something that is new in the last 10 years. The availability of AED's have saved lives, having one is much better than CPR alone and can make the difference between recovery and not. They used to be found just on ambulances and in hospitals, but now they can be found almost everywhere. Look around, I'll bet you have one in the building where you work.

Under the old guidelines rescuers looked for a pulse, but just before I retired they changed it. They found out that most non-medical people could not locate a pulse when there was one, and sometimes found their own pulse when there wasn't one. So to make it easy, no breathing equals no pulse.

Now they have discovered that chest compressions alone will provide enough air flow through the lungs that breathing may not be needed. The new guidelines roll-out is expected to eliminate rescue breathing at all. I guess I will find out next year.