wakeboarding/life

Got to go wakeboarding for the first time this season as part of Brian Jenkins' bachelor party...congratulations B!

See the extended entry for the full scoop.

We rented a boat at Lake Travis from Just For Fun...always get the Deluxe Ski Boat if you rent from there. Apparently the "Standard" designation means "last year's model". Fortunately we were mainly wakeboarding, which meant we didn't really need a ton of speed. We weren't going to get it out of our boat regardless.

Brian Raley brought his awesome Olympus 5.1 megapixel digital camera, which got the following shots, among others.

This is the first time I've ever landed a jump. It looks more like a wheelie than anything, but I promise I got the back end of the board out of the water.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I was very indecisive as I approached the buoy, which we never should have been close to in the first place, much less skiing through. I crossed it on the opposite side as the boat, as you can see from my wake.

This is the result of my second jump. I think I'll be in this pose quite a bit this summer, as I'm going to try to learn some tricks.

An interview with Ralph Peters/link

"If You Cannot Be Loved, Be Feared"

Q: Why has world opinion been so hostile to America's role in Iraq?

A: I won't do BBC interviews any more because they're so anti-American. I think the British press can't get over Graham Greene, basically. I think the Russians are simply embarrassed, because they can't even do Chechnya. The French can't pull off a minor intervention like the Ivory Coast. So there is a tendency to jump to conclusions about the war.

I think this guy has some great insights and commentary on the war in Iraq. I don't agree with him that the U.S. is the "new Rome", at least not as a pure analogy. In terms of power, yes, but hopefully not in how we use that power or our downfall because of it being corrupted.

It's nice to see him say, "the technology that worked best was not the flashy strategic stuff, but the enhanced battlefield communications that permitted the Army, Air Force, and Marines to talk to each other. Close air support in Iraq, for example, worked better than it has before." That's the kind of impact I want to have in my work.

They make it so easy.../link

Texas A&M Aggie Ring on eBay

The Aggie jokes just write themselves.

From the text of the auction (but be sure to go read the whole thing):

The aggie network is huge and this ring is more powerful than an A&M diploma. Now you can get all the perks without ever attending A SINGLE CLASS AT TEXAS A&M!!!

Well, no kidding. I had all the perks of an A&M education upon graduating from high school.

The reason the ring is more powerful than an A&M diploma is because it is made of gold, which actually has some inherent value.

I'm sure glad I went to a real university.

Daylight Savings Tim/link

Courtesy of McSweeney's Internet Tendency

Just in case you weren't screwed up enough yet by the shift...

Saigon Kitchen/fortune cookie

"You have found good company - enjoy"

Not exactly the most appropriate sentiment for a guy sitting alone in his office.

It's true that I work for a good company, and I enjoy being here very much. I just find it kind of ironic that this is the first fortune I got from Saigon Kitchen since Brian moved to France.

Saigon Kitchen was our regular lunch spot going back to when he worked at AMD, and he made a point of calling me to get together there fairly regularly even after he went to Motorola. I think it was a combination of it being close (although closer to me than him), good (#52, Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio, baby!), and the fact that there was nothing worth eating near Ed Bluestein.

Anyhow, good meal (although they keep changing the recipe), good memories, odd fortune. Maybe I should try the lottery numbers instead.

just gotta type/random thought

I'm just feeling the need to ramble.

This has to be the busiest I've been at work in months. For weeks I have nearly nothing to do, and now I've been involved in three different projects just this week. It's a pretty drastic change, but it makes the day go by a lot more quickly.

I started the application process for the Software Engineering Masters at UT last week. I'm really glad that I got the flyer about the program; it just feels like a perfect fit for the direction I want to go with my career. It's also nice to have the opportunity to go back to school without leaving my job or having to go to campus three times a week. Now to take the GRE and finish submitting all my application materials...

Brian has been doing a really good job of posting updates from Freedom. Show him some support.