Author: Bobby Rockers

Little, Nameless, Unremembered Acts

Yesterday, during the last of my two snow days from the blizzard of 2011, I was giving my wife a hard time about her Twilight vampire affinity when my daughter spoke up.

Emily said, “Edward is weird Daddy. He never smiles.”

I replied, “No kidding Em.  I mean, would you really want to marry someone who didn’t smile?”

Her answer was, “No! I want to marry someone like you.”

It was the greatest compliment I have ever received.  I hope she does better than me, and that I become more like how she sees me.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Dear god in heaven, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 has yanking and pulling!  I don’t know how long MS has had, what they call, the clipboard ring but I have a new found respect for Visual Studio (VS08.)  For those who are not familiar with this feature, yank/pull is a Unix staple (especially among EMACS users) that effectively saves a clipboard history for you.

Using a modified paste command will cycle you through your history pasting the your most recent copy to the edited text (and then highlighting it,) using the command again will paste the second most recent copy (and thus removing what was just highlighted.  Some versions of this feature will allow you to view a list of your clipboard history and arrow down to select it.  Imagine having a list of commonly pasted text instantly available to add to any document without your hands ever leaving the keyboard.

Once someone starts using this feature it because almost addictively beneficial. Trying to live without it is similar to trying to edit text without copy/past and has been one of the main reasons VS08 (or any other Windows text editor) is PAINFUL to use.  Admittedly there are a number of third party applications that give you this functionality, but really, should a user be paying for a feature that is as fundamental to using a computer as copy & paste… or virtual desktops?

Wait… oh well, back to Linux.

A Thousand Furlongs of Sea

We must learn not to disassociate the airy flower from the earthy root, for the flower that is cut off from its root fades, and its seeds are barren, whereas the root, secure in mother earth, can produce flower after flower and bring their fruit to maturity.
–Kabbalah

Generally speaking I work behind a desk eight hours a day (OK, more like 12) but once in a great while I will get to go out with a field crew to do actual physical work.  While physical labor is generally pretty scary stuff; I love getting out-of-doors.  My most recent excursion was to the western side of Oklahoma on a GIS mapping project.

I have driven through the panhandle a couple time previously but really didn’t spend any time there.  It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  For someone who is used to the lush green of the Ozark mountains; the naked beauty of the gypsum hills and high plains was like landing on another planet.  This trip was actually months ago, but I forgot I had taken pictures until today. You can check out the photo gallery by clicking the link below.

Oklahoma Gypsum Hills and Eastern Panhandle

To have thrust upon them

Got a couple great quotes from Drive, by Daniel H. Pink:

“Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible.  Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one’s sights and pushing toward the horizon.”

“Rewards, we’ve seen, can limit the breadth of our thinking… They can focus our sights on only what’s immediately before us rather than what’s off in the distance.”

Whatever games are played with us

Watched a couple older game reviews that reminded me of video games I wanted on my todo list. We have a Nintendo Wii but generally, when the kids are in bed, I play PS2 or Computer games. Why still the PS2? Well, honestly I don’t think there has been that many “must have” games for the Xbox or PS3… at lest compared to the library of 10,000 “must try” games on the PS2.

–Thief 2
–Hitman, Blood Money
–Shadow of the Colossus
–Silent Hill 2
–Killer 7

Anyone else have some suggestions on their favorite PS2 games?

The last government program that worked

Of course the federal government cannot force individuals to actually buy something they don’t want, but it is just as much an abomination that the court didn’t strike down the power of the federal government to regulate healthcare. Anyone who is ignorant enough to bastardize the Interstate Commerce Clause to assume such should really check their history:

It is very certain that [the commerce clause] grew out of the abuse of the power by the importing States in taxing the non-importing, and was intended as a negative and preventive provision against injustice among the States themselves, rather than as a power to be used for the positive purposes of the General Government.
–James Madison

The Hardest thing in the World to Understand.

Just to be clear, when it comes to the government “giving” millionaires $750 billion for a middle class tax cut; the US government isn’t giving anything to anyone. They are simply not TAKING $750 billion from people who make millions a year. We can rationally argue the cost/benefits of such action but government only gives away what it has taken, by force, from other people.

In free societies, States do not have rights; people have rights. States (i.e. governments) have powers that are delegated to them by people.

I believe that government has the power to tax people and I even think taxing people is a necessity in any successful government. But people who confuse a right and a power are doing themselves an intellectual dishonesty by choosing to remain woefully ignorant about the means and methods of obtaining that freedom. Government is ONLY capable of taking liberty; it cannot give it.

Again, I believe that it IS necessary to take some freedoms to have a organized society but do not foolishly convince yourself that you have not surrendered something; even if in the act of surrender you give yourself more stability or opportunity.

Things Better Left Unsaid

The number of really useful posts on this blog has dropped to almost non-existent levels.  With very few updates to speak of, the only new content seems to be tweets lately.  Now having my tweets archived here is important to me but almost worthless for anyone else so I have finally found a solution.

A new set of plug-ins I installed with the newest release of WordPress (the CMS this blog runs on) allows me to still post my tweets in a weekly archive, just like they have been for a couple years now.  The difference is that those posts are hidden from the front page.  If you really want to see my tweets you can click on one of the archive links on the right.  The posts are still there but they don’t reduce the signal to noise ratio of the content on the front page (lacking though it is.)

Hopefully this will encourage me to post more meaningful content.  Something nearly impossible to do in 140 characters.

Facebook Post worth Posting

My friend James Gladwell just posted this on his wall, and I just had to repost it:

Lindsey Lohan who? I can’t believe the news coverage is been given to a spoiled 20-something yr old! Here are a few 20 year-olds worth knowing about: Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matt Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Chase Stanley 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew King 23, Christopher Goeke 23 & Sheldon Tate 27. These 20-so…methings gave their lives for you this week.