James Thurber

“There are two kinds of light–the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.”

Again, a couple of weeks of hell at the office.  Projects going badly, deadlines whooshing by and snipers in the weeds.  I usually love my job but there’s been too many periods like this in the last year.  Up at 5am and right on the laptop to check mail from Europe and run time sensitive reports and then off to the office to put out fires and wait for the next disaster.  Finish a long day and meet the wife and friends for a quick pint followed by a hurried dinner at home (some nights I eat) and then into bed for a fitful night of tossing and turning.

My responsibilities are such now that I’m stuck right in between the proverbial rock and hard place.  Too many things are out of my control but I still have the responsibility to make it work.  I hate this position and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Anyway, another weekend is upon us and – wonder of wonders! – I don’t have anything on the critical path that needs to be done by Monday.  Of course, the taxes are due on Monday so I’ll have to do some creative bookkeeping tomorrow and file online but it’s almost a relief as it has nothing to do with the job.

Played nine holes of golf early this morning in the rain.  Not a bad round if I say so myself.  Here it is nearly 11am and I’ve already played golf, bottled Jan’s wine and installed a couple of new smoke detectors. 

And written this, the first posting in a week.

Vladimir Nabokov

“My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.”

A snowy/rainy Sunday; where is Spring?  Instead of golfing, I’m hunkered in the basement doing the laundry and goofing around in Photoshop.

Today’s experiment involves combining 2 photos using a layer mask.  The first picture comes from the Swiss Transportation Museum in Lucerne.  The beautiful Lockheed Orion.

Then, we load a picture from the Clarieville Conservation Area here in Brampton.  A tired, patient muddy steed.

Finally, we merge the images and “paint” the horse into the museum.

Quick, dirty and a whole lot of fun. 

Kurt Vonnegut

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”

My first and last posting on the whole Don Imus/Rutgers basketball mess.

Don Imus has been fired. The Rutgers University women’s basketball team has accepted his apology.  He’s an idiot.  They’re very gracious. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Anne Coulter have all had their say.  Larry King found something other than Anna Nicole Smith to fill  his crappy hour for a week.

Can the whole stupid matter now go away?  Please?

After nearly 2 decades of development costing $20 billion and the loss of 30 lives, the Osprey V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft is heading off to Iraq later this year.  This will mark the first deployment of the controversial plane.

Able to take off and land vertically, the Osprey’s engines transition to a horizontal position allowing it to perform like a conventional aircraft.

Loud and relatively slow, no doubt the insurgents will be jockeying for the bragging rights of the first Osprey kill.