Happy

    I had a thought the other day: the only way I am going to lose any weight is if I change my life. I've tried various diets and various amounts of exercise, but they have all been pretty much for naught. As long as I remain in my nice comfortable groove, nothing is going to change. I've got my computer with it's nice, fast internet connection in my warm basement cave. I have an endless supply of books to read. (I've started going to the library again. They were open, shock of all shocks, the last time I stopped by.) I've got Wikipedia at my beck and call, and the universe is full of unexplained curiosities. What I need is to have my kitchen separated from my computer by a mile instead of a single flight of stairs.
    Daring daughter is home again and it threatening to send me to Guatemala for a couple of months. I dread the prospect, but it may be for the best.

Congratulations

Dutiful daughter has finished her last term of school, so we decided she needed a picture of Gus wearing a mortarboard. Gus did not like this idea. It was all I could do to restrain him while the camera went about its business of taking a picture. 30 nanoseconds after the camera clicked he was on his way out the door.

New Wallpaper

I don't know how long I've had this computer. Five years, maybe ten? Until today I had been perfectly happy with the default wallpaper supplied by Microsoft (Bliss). But then I saw this picture on my great big new, extra-cheap monitor, and I decided I liked it better.
    These are Australian Black Hawk helicopters returning home from their mission in Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste? What's that? Timor is an island in Indonesia, er, it was, until there was a bit of a fracas ten years ago when the East End, the Leste End, got all uppity.

Doublespeak of the Day

BEIJING (Nov. 26, 2012) Secretary of the Navy the Honorable Ray Mabus meets with People's Liberation Army Navy Rear Adm. Zhang Jianchang in Beijing, China. Mabus visited China to discuss the United States' new defense strategy, deepening our military-to-military engagements, rebalancing toward the Pacific and fostering a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship with China. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Sam Shavers/Released)

If you understand that statement you are a better interpreter than I am.

Kyrgyzstan, Part 3

I came across a pretty good map of the 'stans, but it wasn't big enough, so I went looking for a better one and I found this point and click geography test. Some of them are easy like Egypt and Turkey. Others are almost impossible, like Bahrain, and Chad and Niger. I don't think I will ever be able to keep those last two straight.

Canadian Pacific Railway

Cool picture of a train going up a steep grade somewhere on the West coast of Canada. Or it it?

Found on Look at this Little Thing

Kyrgyzstan, Part 2

This showed up in my email this morning. I came across a smaller version of it yesterday and asked for a larger one, and voila! This statue is in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The short version of the story is that the horse carried the man until he was too tired to go on, and then the man carried the horse. I imagine there is a longer version but I have been unable to find any trace of it. Bishkek is the same city where the Manas airport is, the one being used to supply our troops in Afghanistan.