Joey Gibson’s Blog

I can barely comprehend the death toll that is now being reported from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami over the weekend. The latest numbers are around 60,000 80,000 and that’s really hard to believe. Not that I doubt the figure; I’m saying it’s just hard to wrap my brain around that many deaths. I can’t imagine the suffering that the survivors are enduring.

There are some satellite photos of the beach in Sri Lanka here, here and here. The first photo is from January, just as a frame of reference. The second shows the waves coming in and the third is after they hit. Amazing. And there are some stunning videos here.

Update: CNN has the latest counts.

I have three things to say today. One about a book, one about a film, and another about my son.

First, the film. I watched Dead Man, a 1995 Johnny Depp film, last night. A few funny moments, but overall a load of crap. It was sort of a surreal re-imagining of a Western, with lots of foul-mouthed cowboys and an Indian who quotes William Blake. I didn’t get it, and thus was unimpressed.

Second, the book. Yesterday, I finished reading Lynne Truss’s excellent book on punctuation called Eats, Shoots & Leaves. While a book on punctuation sounds about as exciting as reading a dictionary, it was actually extremely funny and made many good points about society’s slide into a punctuational abyss, thanks, largely, to the rise of email and other electronic communications. I have remarked before about how a great many people seem to lose all grasp of grammar, spelling and punctuation when they send emails, and Ms. Truss makes the same point. But this book is not just a lament for declining punctuational standards. There’s a lot of history about how we came to have the various symbols that we use to craft our writing. It’s very interesting and, yes, very funny.

Finally, a conversation with my boy, Thomas. Picture it: McDonald’s; Last Saturday; 11:45 AM.

I guess he’s right…

I took some time off today to go down to the Festival of Trees, which benefits Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and had a good time. My wife was on the team that created my son’s school’s tree for the festival, and it won FIRST PLACE in the School division. Their tree beat out 99 other trees, which is pretty impressive.

But that’s not the mixup. We were looking at some displays of Christmas from other countries. When we came to the display for the Philippines the following conversation ensued between myself and my son, Thomas:

Me: Hey, Thomas. This one’s from the Philippines.
Thomas: Ooo, Daddy. Those are baaad people.
Me: …
Thomas: Baaad people.
Me: Oh! No, Thomas, you mean Philistines!

Just a wee tad bit different…

Well, today was “Day One” of the new company. We spent all day in a conference room, trying to nail down what our “product” is, and boy did we make progress. After one particularly good session, I opined that “We came in with a kick-ass product, but now it’s way kick-assier.” That may well become our rallying cry… Seriously, today was an excellent day. We made major progress towards deciding exactly what we’re going to provide, and a little bit of the “how.” This is a very exciting time.

On an implementation note, I was originally planning on building the product using Struts, but after having lunch with a friend last Tuesday, and doing my own research, I’m about 93 2/3% certain that I’m actually going to use Tapestry. (Thanks, Tom!) I am about 2/5 of the way finished reading Tapestry in Action by the Tapestry creator, Howard Lewis Ship. It’s quite a bit different from Struts, and I really like the MVC model that it provides. It seems a lot more OO to me, and quite a bit simpler to work with and maintain.

Some of you who know me have already heard the news, but yesterday was my last day at BravePoint. A friend called me recently with an absolutely killer idea for a company. So I jumped. We officially start next Monday and I can’t wait. It’s just the two of us that constitute the company; he’s the business guy and I’m the technology guy. I can’t say what the product is (not yet, anyway), but it’s going to be huge. This is important work, and I’m very excited to get going.

Stay tuned for more details.

I’m sitting at the Atlanta airport as I write this, on my way to Washington D.C. for RubyConf 2004 and I am not happy. First, I tried to check my one bag at the AirTran counter outside the terminal, but was told I couldn’t. No reason given. Then I went inside and queued up at the end of an enormous queue. After a minute or so, one of the guys who had been working the outside counter came in, saw me, and told me to go to a much shorter line. I did so, and was promptly accosted by a bitchy AirTran worker who told me to go back to the other line. I said “So why did the skycap tell me to get in this one?” “I ‘on’t kno,” was the response. She then ambled off to harass some more passengers. So, still in the short line, I make it to the counter very quickly, only to have the lady behind this counter say “This line is for people who already have boarding passes.” I ask her the same question, but she was most helpful and took me anyway. Very nice.

I then walk into the security area, noticing that there is virtually no line at all. When I present my id and boarding pass to the TSA guy, he tells me to follow him. He deposits me in a glass cattle chute with about 100 other people, hands me my pass, turns and leaves without another word. I quickly find out that I have been “randomly selected” to get man-handled by the TSA. I ended up waiting 40 minutes, 40 bloody minutes to get to the screening area. Several of the TSA members were downright rude, apparently drunk with power. After going through the metal detector, a TSA guy picks up my bag and the tray with my laptop, phone, etc, and takes it to yet another station. I am commanded to sit down by one asshole, who then heads off, presumably to bark at someone else.

My TSA handler then says “I’m gon’ search yo bag,” to which I respond, “OK…” as if I could refuse. Another handler then walk up, telling me what yoga poses to assume while he wands me. Then I get frisked. At this point the woman says “I’m gon’ test yo bag,” to which I respond, “OK….” She swiped some sort of cloth inside the bag, ambled off, then came back and told me that I was “free to go.” Thanks, let me take that perp walk again….

The Federal government, specifically the TSA, is doing everything it can to destroy air travel in this country. This “random screening” bullshit is nothing more than a touchy-feelie feel-good show. There are only two descriptions of people who should be screened:

• people who look Arab or have Arab names
• people who look Muslim or have Muslim names

Screw what people might think about gasp! “profiling.” The only people (and I use that word loosely) who are trying to commit terrorist acts against the United States are Muslims and Arabs. That’s it. I defy anyone to prove otherwise. (And don’t tell me that Timothy McVeigh was a “white Christian.”) If Muslims and Arabs don’t like the scrutiny, then they need to start cleaning house with their own people. Forcing little old ladies and mild-mannered software developers to submit to this indignity does nothing to make the skies safer. All it does is piss off people like me and make me hate flying even more than I already do.

I used to love flying, but now I generally avoid it. I’m not alone. Some of the other people chosen to get the TSA Screw-Job were saying that they only fly if the drive is more than 6 hours. I’m in the same camp.

On the upside, my flight pushed back from the jetway at precisely the time specified, and then 10 minutes later we were in the air. We then landed 30 minutes before the specified time on the ticket. Wow. I then rode some enormous double-wide bus to get to baggage claim, which was interesting. A quick ride to the Enterprise rental agency, then a 15 minute drive, and I’m at my hotel. Now to relax…

I took these photos this morning on my way to work, around 0730. The first is taken from the car, as I was about to pull into my office’s parking lot. The other is taken from behind my building in the parking lot, about 4 minutes later. Those are contrails, though the Tin-Foil Hat Brigade will have you believe they are actually chemtrails; a sinister government plot to dump chemicals on unsuspecting citizens. Yawn… I will say that I’ve never seen contrails quite like those before, so similar and so close together, unless it was sky-writing. Anyway, I thought the trails were interesting… (Click for a larger version.)

And I thought the pro-death crowd (that would be those who think abortion is just dandy) could sink no lower into the sewer of life. How wrong I was. If this is for real, and it appears to be, you can now get a t-shirt from Planned Parenthood (an oxymoron if ever there was one) with the cheery slogan “I had an abortion” on it. You disgusting murderous scum. It’s bad enough that you murdered your baby, but to wear a t-shirt proclaiming it like some sick badge of honor is beyond reprehensible.

You can see the shirt for yourself (and even order one!) by going here. And that really is Planned Parenthood’s online store. I got there by going to http://www.plannedparenthood.org/store and clicking on “Wearables With A Message.”

I swear if I ever see a woman wearing a shirt like that I will beat her senseless.

This story provides yet another reason why my son will never see the inside of a public school.

I’m watching the caisson carrying President Reagan’s body to Capitol Hill. Wow. Powerful images. The ritual of it all is very moving. And I’m watching on FOX News which is just showing the pictures and not really saying much; letting the images speak for themselves. It’s better that way.

There are thousands of people lining Constitution Avenue to say goodbye.

Tonight while driving to Chili’s I noticed a car dealership with its flag at half-mast. I was surprised to see this because I had not heard anything that would warrant it. Of course I hadn’t listened to any news so far today and I had not been online yet. When we got to the restaurant I saw images of President Reagan on the television, and then I knew. I asked the hostess if President Reagan had died, and she gave me a puzzled look. Another hostess nearby said “Yeah, Reagan died.” I have been expecting this news for a long time now, given his failing health and his struggle with that terrible disease, Alzheimer’s, but it’s still a very sad day.

I was 10 when he was inaugurated. I still remember on Inauguration day the school administration pulled all of us into the cafeteria, wheeled in televisions, and let us watch the ceremony. I was 18, still a political neophyte, when he left office. It’s only in much more recent years that I’ve come to appreciate his greatness and what he did for America, and the world. To say that he defeated the scourge of Communism, nearly single-handedly, is not an overstatement. He pulled us out of the “malaise” of the 70’s and helped us return to being the great “city on a hill” that he liked to speak of.

Tonight President Reagan is taking up residence in a city far grander than any here on Earth.

President Bush made these remarks today upon news of his passing.

This is a sad hour in the life of America. A great American life has come to an end. I have just spoken to Nancy Reagan. On behalf of our whole nation, Laura and I offered her and the Reagan family our prayers and our condolences.

Ronald Reagan won America’s respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom. He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save.

During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self-doubt. And because of his leadership, the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny. Now, in laying our leader to rest, we say thank you.

He always told us that for America, the best was yet to come. We comfort ourselves in the knowledge that this is true for him, too. His work is done, and now a shining city awaits him. May God bless Ronald Reagan.

I couldn’t have said it any better. Rush likes to refer to President Reagan as “Ronaldus Magnus.” I like the sound of that. I bet he does too.

We went to see Cirque du Soleil: Alegria in Atlanta last night. O boy, what a show. It was awesome, though I believe the La Nouba show at Disney World is awesome-er. The music of Alegria is wonderful, but the show is just not quite as “big” as La Nouba. Most of the acts have a single actor focus, whereas in La Nouba most of the acts featured multiple actors doing something at the same time, with lots of “etc” stuff going on all over the stage. The “Russian Bars” segment and the “power track” trampolines were incredible to watch. The clowns are quite funny and entertaining. I would definitely go see it again. Thomas was ready to see it again as soon as he realized it was over…

For the first time in two years, we here in the Deep South awoke to a blanket of snow on the ground. This was a fast moving storm that came through, dumping 1.5 inches of snow at our house between 0200 and 0500 this morning. Before 0200 it was cold, but completely dry. We went out and played some early on and had a great time. Photos are posted in my photo gallery. We’ll go out again later, I’m sure. It’s quite beautiful if a bit hard because it was a very wet snow which then re-froze. Snowballs made from this snow to the cheek actually hurt!

I am once again heartbroken! First we lost Mr. Rogers and now, less than a year later, we’ve lost Captain Kangaroo! I was a kid in the 70’s and both of these men had a big impact on my life. I watched both shows whenever they were on and learned many lessons while still having fun. And that’s the key: they were educational yet fun, and strong in traditional values. Both of their shows are examples of the best of kids’ tv. Too much of what passes for children’s tv today is nothing but violence and potty humor or liberal indoctrination.

They will both be missed by many, many people.

This morning I was using my Win2k system hosted by VirtualPC, connected up to the office

How cool is this? I’m sitting at my departure gate at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and they have high speed WiFi deployed all over the place. You plug in your wireless card, connect to the local WayPort network and, to quote Emeril, BAM! You’re connected. The first time you try to browse to a website, you get hijacked to the WayPort site and are presented with the option of buying a connection. I was prepared to be told $15/hour or something else outlandish, but it’s only $6.95/day, which isn’t that bad. Especially when you’ve got over two hours to wait for your flight. And they don’t seem to have any restrictions on what you can do. I’m logged into AIM, MSN Messenger, Y! Messenger and IRC, I’ve used ssh to get to one of my machines, and I’ve checked and sent email, all with no problems. Very nice!

I’ve run into Matsumoto-san several times so far this weekend, but each time only managed a sheepish ‘Hi,’ or something equally lame. The frustrating thing is that I’ve been practicing my Japanese for weeks in preparation for meeting him yet every time I came within speaking distance, I chickened out.

Well, finally tonight I worked up my courage, and as Matsumoto-san and I were walking alongside each other in the corridor, I leaned over and said:

Kon ban wa, Matsumoto-san. ‘Joey Gibson’ to moushimasu.

Matsumoto-san laughed heartily and responded with

Jouzu desu!

or something along those lines. He speaks very fast. Anyway I, now feeling a bit more confident, followed up with

Nihongo ga sukoshi hanashimasu, demo mada jouzu ja’arimasen.

To which he said

Iie, juubun jouzu desu.

Which made me very happy.

Arigatou gozaimasu, Matsumoto-san.

It’s 17:37 on Saturday and I’m sitting with some new friends at a little coffee shop called Flight Path, which is about 2 miles from the conference hotel. The reason we are here is because it has free wifi! I’m extremely tired and was going to take a short nap, but the lure of the network was too great, and I gave in. Alas, my rest will have to wait.

I’ve been suffering at 24.0 kbps for the past two days so this is a welcome change. We’ve got to head back for dinner in a few minutes and then a big presentation by Matz (the creator of Ruby). It should be fun.

Ed. Note: I flew from Atlanta, GA to Austin, TX this morning and I would have written this in-flight, but the guy in front of me reclined his seat and since there is only 4.23 inches of space between one row of seats and another on most commercial airliners (unless you pay the amazingly high price for First Class) I was unable to use my laptop. Thus I composed this missive in my head and am now commiting it in writing at my hotel. Here’s what I would have written:

SWEET MOTHER OF ABRAHAM! That was the roughest take-off I’ve ever experienced. There was a serious front coming into Atlanta this morning and we had very high winds. Driving to the airport my car was buffetted all over the road, and then the airplane was buffetted as we tried to take off. My compliments to the pilot for not crashing. Did I mention that the winds were amazingly high? Then we get to Austin, TX two hours later and have an equally rough landing. At least we did land, which is good. You always want take-offs and landings to occur in pairs…

One funny thing happened before we even took off. The pilot comes over the intercom telling us about the flight that will begin any second. He ends with “… and we’ll get you to San Antonio as fast as we can.” Of course we’re not going to San Antonio, we’re going to Austin. Puzzled looks are being passed around the cabin when the pilot comes back on and says “One correction. We will be going to Austin, not San Antonio. I was there a few times yesterday and it stuck in my head. Sorry for the confusion.” That was good for a laugh.

Unlike at the Atlanta airport where getting from the plane to the baggage carousels is essentially a 5k walk, at the Austin airport it was about a 50 yard walk from the jetway to the baggage carousels. And it was all above ground! In well lit corridors, with no need of moving sidewalks.

So I go to the Enterprise rent-a-car stand and confirm my reservation for a full-size car. I then proceed up to the area where you get your car, and after a five minute wait they ask me if I’d like to take a brand new, never before rented, Ford F-150 quad cab truck as a free upgrade for having to wait. Hmmm, let’s see. I can keep waiting for a Grand Am, or I can take the big manly truck. Hmmm… OK! So here I am in Texas, driving a big-ass Texas sized truck. Ooo yeah.

So why am I in Austin? For the Third International Ruby Conference, of course! It starts tomorrow, but I came in a day early so I wouldn’t miss any of the early sessions on Friday morning. This is going to be fun and I will be blogging about interesting things that happen as the conference progresses.

Not that I’ll be blogging quickly. The conference hotel has no high speed Internet access, and I’m sitting here on a 24.0 bpskbps dial up connection. Blech!

And they are called “abortion doctors.” How can anyone with a soul defend partial-birth abortion? This article recounts testimony from a woman who worked for three days at an abortion clinic, where she assisted in three of these ghastly procedures. Here’s a sample:

“Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby’s legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby’s body and the arms — everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby’s head just inside the uterus.

“The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall.”

The abortion was nearly complete.

“The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby’s brains out,” Shafer said. “Now the baby was completely limp. I was really completely unprepared for what I was seeing. I almost threw up as I watched the doctor do these things.

“… Dr. Haskell delivered the baby’s head. He cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta. He threw that baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he’d used. I saw the baby move in the pan. I asked another nurse and she said it was just ‘reflexes.’”

There is a special place in Hell for people who can murder children like that. “Pro-choice” people don’t like to use the term “partial birth abortion” but what else is it? That child was delivered all except for his head! He was then systematically murdered. Using a clinical name for it, “dilation and extraction,” doesn’t change what it is.

Our President and those in Congress who have a soul have courageously, finally outlawed this form of infanticide. Of course less than an hour after President Bush signed the law some liberal judge had enjoined it. I expected that to happen, just not so fast. Well, we can’t let anything eat away at our “right to choose,” now can we?