Category: Miscellaneous babble

Random mutterings

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Slow news week

It’s been quiet lately. One of those slow news weeks where nothing notable really happens. I like these periods. Gives me some time to unwind and focus on other things.

Finally finished Naked Empire by Terry Goodkind. The 8th book in that epic Sword of Truth series. I thought this book was better than the last one. I think it wrapped up nicely, and seems to be starting to set the stage for the endgame. Now I have to go back and re-read the series again.

The last few books (6, 7 and 8) in the series have been rather interesting. The more I think about them, the more they seem like a philosophical treatise on the nature of people, free will and the morality of the choices people make, disguised as a fantasy novel. Perhaps this is what the author is trying to do. Some of it is very thought provoking. I’ll have to read the series all over again to try to collect them all in my head for further analysis.

In the meantime, I leave you with Wolf_Gal’s collection of the Wizard’s Rules from the Sword of Truth Series.

  • Wizard’s First Rule: People are stupid.
  • Wizard’s Second Rule: The greatest harm can result from the best intentions.
  • Wizard’s Third Rule: Passion rules reason.
  • Wizard’s Fourth Rule: There is magic in sincere forgiveness.
  • Wizard’s Fifth Rule: Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie.
  • Wizard’s Sixth Rule: The only soverign we can allow to rule us is reason.
  • Wizard’s Seventh Rule: Life is the future, not the past.
  • And from the latest book,
  • Wizard’s Eighth Rule: Deserve victory
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No, really, that’s not me.

My friends at work have decided the US Army Muslim chaplain that was arrested over the weekend looks like me. I don’t really see it, but I guess I’m under arrest now at the Naval Brig in Charleston, SC.

At least I’m not far from home.

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Eye Exams

I have to touch type this because I can barely see what’s on my monitor, so forgive the typos. Had my routine eye exam today. I usually go see my optometrist every other year. Getting my pupils dilated for eye exams always remind me just how useful my irises are at making the outside world viewable. There’s nothing like sitting in the exam room with all the lights dimmed, and then walking out to have your eyes seared out of your head by the noonday sun. It’s like someone cranked up the wattage of the sun or something. Now I know how Gollum felt about having to roam around with those hobbits during the daylight.

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Dodged another one

Looks like another hurricane bullet will pass us by. Won’t breathe easy until it’s gone by and is no longer an issue. But that means it will have impacted someone else. Preparations continue…the season’s not over yet.

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Getting ready

I figure by the end of the weekend, we should have a pretty good idea if Hurricane Isabel will be a problem or not. So this evening, my wife and I decided to avoid the rush and start assembling our hurricane kit. I think a lot of other people had the same idea, but earlier. The Walmart down the road was cleaned out of water, D batteries, and mostly cleaned out of flashlights. But we managed to get most of the things on our list (except water and D batteries).

Next, back up the road to the grocery store before they closed. They had all the food items we were after, but they were pretty much cleaned out of water too. One of the employees told us “They were even grabbing the expensive stuff”, but that they would be getting some more in the morning. At least they still had some D batteries in stock.