October 19, 2004

There are some very bittersweet moments to being a parent.

Last week my daughter asked my wife, "Why do some kids say there's a Santa Claus, and some kids say there isn't?"

It was a question that told us it was time to have one of "the talks". Santa has always been kind of a difficult things for us; we've tried to teach her to be completely honest with us, and we tell her we're honest with her. But, at its base level, isn't Santa Claus a lie? 

My wife and I decided a long time ago that we're not going to ruin some of the magic of being a child, and hoped that our daughters would understand when it came time to let them know the truth.

So it was with some reluctance that we called our child into the living room to chat with her. Both of us were very concerned; how would she take it? How would she react? How would this affect the trust we've worked so hard to build up with our children? A lot of questions....

We explained to her that there are some things that adults do to make a child's life more fun, and Santa is one of them. We told her that she couldn't tell her little sister...and since she couldn't tell her sister, she was now part of the "grown up" world to make a child's life more fun.

She looked sad for a moment or two. We explained she would still get presents, that it was kind of a game we play. She mentioned "so that's why the presents that came from Santa one year had the same wrapping as ours!" (that was 3 years ago, BTW. When you have young children keep in mind they will remember everything).

And after that she was fine. Looking back on it I don't think her sad look was her being sad at all. She was thinking about the past & the identical Christmas wrapping.

In the end it was a conversation that lasted about 10 minutes. She was fine with everything, didn't seem to bother her a bit. A lot of the worry my wife and I seems to have been completely useless.

And isn't that true about most things that people obsess about?

August 18, 2004

August 18th? Already? Are you kidding me?

Time goes by way too fast as you grow older. I can't believe I haven't written anything in over a month. Not that anyone would notice; I've had 700 odd hits on the web page in over 2 years. Not exactly an area that advertisers will be begging to frequent, that's for certain.

Had an awful lot of fun a week or so ago. A friend of mine landed a dream job so we all went out to celebrate...by bowling. Don't laugh, we all had a great time. I wanted to play some pool afterwards but I couldn't get anyone else interested.

I guess every blogger needs to have a list on occasion so here's one of mine. The things I enjoy doing but can never get people to do them with me:

1.) Play softball

2.) Play volleyball

3.) Rock climb

4.) Play racquetball

5.) Learn scuba diving

6.) Learn another language

I'm actually in the process of learning another language, I'm on lesson nine of my Spanish. I can ask where the bathroom is, if you want something to eat, or tell you I want a beer (and I can ask how much a beer costs). Of course I won't understand you if you answer in Spanish, but give me time. And it's Castilian Spanish I'm learning, though one of my friends assures me that not many people speak it. Perhaps not, but it is the base for all the other Spanish languages out there, so I figure it's the best start. I'm fairly certain I'll be able to make my desires known.

As long as I'm updating....Mary, why haven't you written back? Skip, we got the ring back...give me a call to set up a time for you guys to check it out.

And Buzzkill....I know you're reading this.

July 8th, 2004

My family never took many pictures as I was growing up; perhaps it was simply cost prohibitive, since film & developing wasn’t the science it is now. And for those of you old enough to remember Polaroids…well, they ran about $1 a picture, back when $1 was real money.

The family photo album is exactly that; a single album of pictures of the family as we were growing up. There are gaps here and there, and people I don’t recognize, but the pictures are there as a testament to my past.

The one picture I have of my father is one he took in the last years of his life, a sitting portrait he had taken with my mother. He has the smile one reserves for such pictures; it’s him, but it’s him posing. I am always tempted to tell people “that’s my father” instead of “that’s my dad” when they ask about the picture.

Recently my wife purchased a digital camera, which removed all the “it’s too expensive” excuses. With the memory card that’s in it we can take about 300 pictures before we need to download it to the computer. Since that card is reusable we have an unlimited supply of photo taking opportunities. We took advantage of this over the July 4th weekend, taking pictures of my party & family as well as the fireworks that evening.

A friend of mine accompanied us to the fireworks show. She more family than friend, but she can be pretty vain about her appearance. She was in a lot of the pictures we took that night, and I was showing them to her last evening. There were several she told me “really need to be deleted”.

I suppose I would delete them if she ever seriously asked me to, but I would really hate to do so. I have learned that the pictures that people treasure the most aren’t the posed, picture-perfect ones that people spend hours fiddling with. The pictures people carry with them, the ones that they hold dear to their heart, are the candid shots. The moment in time showing that we are human; the one with chocolate spilled down the front of our shirt, or trying to spike a volleyball in the rain, or a simple moment of happiness….those are the memories we wish to cherish.

Eventually things will happen to my family. My kids will grow up to have children of their own, my friends will get busy with different aspects of their own life, my wife and I will grow old together. I want the ability to look back on our lives and see things as they actually were, not as people hope we see them.

My friends, my family, everyone involved in my life; they’re all beautiful. Never more so when they are caught being themselves.
 

July 3rd, 2004

So Islamic militants have captured a US Marine, and are threatening to behead him.

There's an old joke in geek circles about deleting files.

Delete a file on an Windows computer and the operating system will ask you "Are you sure?", then ask you "are you really, really sure", then tell you "well, I'll just put it over in this area here in case you want it back later."

Delete a file on an Apple computer and it will ask you "Are you sure?" and delete the file.

Delete a file on a Linux system and Linux deletes the file and tells you, "man are you screwed."

I can't imagine anything more stupid than trying to intimidate the US Marine core. It's like shooting a cop; the punishment is going to be swift, and just.

Cutting a Marine's head off? I hope it doesn't happen...I hope these fools realize their mistake and let the guy go, tuck their tails between their legs and just run.

But if it does happen....well...

"man, are you screwed."

June 17, 2004

It seems like just a few weeks ago I was getting married, having kids, finding a new job, moving; all of those things that make up a pretty normal life, but don't seem normal when they're happening to you.

It's hard to believe that the marriage actually happened 10 years ago today. Good heavens, time flies by when you're happy.

Given a chance I'd do it all again. Just a heck of a lot sooner.

June 16, 2004

So much happening. My tenth anniversary is coming up quickly, my kids are up for the summer, and I have finally solved a technical problem at work that has been vexing me for months.

But this is what has made me finally update my site. Go here, do this:

http://www.sgthook.com/blog/oldblog/000625.php

The crap shoes we tend to throw out are like gold for these kids. It will cost you a couple of bucks to send these things UPS ground, and might take you a few minutes out of your way.

It's not that hard folks....let's get it done.

(And here's an idea from the comments in the link that I think is great: Take a magic marker and put a nice note on the inside tongue of the shoe, something akin to "From your civilian and military friends in the USA". Let them know where it came from!)

May 15th, 2004

On Friday, April 30th, Ted Koppel read the names of all the servicemen who have died in Iraq. 

Why do this on April 30th, instead of Memorial Day? Could the reason possibly be the fact that Memorial Day is outside of the May sweeps period?

Or was this just a thinly veiled political stunt? ABC assured us this was their way of "honoring the dead".  I can tell you why they'll never read the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Because there are too damn many of them.

I wish the media could understand the fact that we are at war. We have been attacked, on our own soil, and now we are rooting out the people that did it. I wish they could realize that it is better to have a fully trained & armoured force in an area where we could use a democratic foothold rather than waiting for them to wipe out a suburban shopping mall.

I wish they would understand that the people doing their job in Iraq are hero's, in every sense of the word.

Those soldier's deserve more than a ratings stunt.

May 5th, 2004

For the first time in my life I own a car that I shopped for, picked out, signed for & bought. It's a white Saturn L200 and, oddly, it's loaded.

I've always wanted a Saturn since they first came out. When my van door fell off I seriously considered buying one. Two weeks later when it cost $100 to have the transmission done, I REALLY considered it. A month after that when I had to take the van from the transmission shop (where it had to be fixed AGAIN, under warranty at least) almost directly to the garage I knew the time was near.

When my mechanic told me that it would cost me $300 to get the thing to "drivable", and more to get it into "safe", I knew the time had come.

I am now the owner of a nearly new car; I bought it with 20,000 miles on it at half the cost of a new one. Decided to go with the extended warranty as well....my experience with the van taught me that much, at least.

Now when I drive home I have the sunroof open and *my* CD's playing. Doesn't matter if it's cold outside, I just fire up the heater & the heated seats.

I didn't shop for heated seats, it was just part of the package.

Everyone around me seemed really excited about a new car, but to me it's just a car. It gets me from point A to point B without breaking down, which is all I ask in a car.

Of course now it gets me there in style.

April 9, 2004

A friend of mine stopped by the other night. The talk moved briefly to the attack on the twin towers; she stated that one of the causes was "American arrogance".

That was a week ago and I still am somewhat slack-jawed at the comment. Is it American arrogance to believe that we could go to work in a building and not be murdered by madmen flying an airplane into the building? And for what reason?

Yes, I know all of the reasons that have been given. And they're all crap; these people were lunatics, pure and simple. No amount of hang-wringing or leftist weeping is going to change the fact that they were homicidal maniacs, in the very literal sense.

The reason these attacks happened is simple: it is nearly impossible for a same person to think insanely.

April 2, 2004

I read an online acquaintances journal the other day; it was a simple entry. "My wife has cancer" he said. "We'll be OK, but keep us in your thoughts and prayers".

One of the comments was "Trust in God; His will shall be done".

If that's the case then "His will" was that this woman should get cancer.

Personally, I think they should trust in medicine and chemotherapy.

But that's just me.