Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Books

* "Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War" by H. W. Crockett III - An interesting if odd look at the Civil War. I appreciate the different point of views at looking at Lincoln and secession but the "lost cause" mentality is pretty thick.
* "Strategic Battles in the Pacific" by Earle Rice Jr. - good basic intro to some of the most important Pacific Theater battles. An explanation of why Midway was not included would be very welcome.
* "Driving Like Crazy" by P. J. O'Rourke - not one of his best efforts.
* "A Gift to My Children" by Jim Rogers - I haven't read any of Rogers' other books but I hope they are better than this. The advice for his children mostly center around China becoming the center of the universe.
* "Superfoods for Dummies" by Brent Agin and Shereen Jegtvig - a good intro to superfoods and should whet our appetite for more.

Operation Orchard

Is this the definitive account of the Israeli strike on the nascent Syrian nuke site?

Monday, November 16, 2009

Weekend Activities

* Lego League competition - The kids did awesome at their first contest, especially given the long day. With a couple of tweaks to the robot and the project presentation, they could place much higher.
* Open houses at Pacific Ridge and Grauer Schools - the first step in the long journey towards junior high
* Selena Gomez concert at House of Blues
* Worked on the garden
* Jaya performed at a duet concert, Bengt performed at his regular piano recital

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Man on the Bench

This is one of the most interesting but saddest stories I have read in a long time. I realize that stories like this happen all the time, they are rarely publicized or have a somewhat happy ending. It also raises many questions:
* What caused Jeff Pastorino to fall into such a mental illness that we couldn't function in society anymore? It didn't sound like he had any previous mental issues. Was it just a failed romance that caused him to snap?
* Why didn't his family look for him? You would think one of his brothers would try to track him down after a while. Maybe they did, but it wasn't mentioned in the story.
* What if someone you knew and loved disappeared one day?