Posted 9:06 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Patriotism to the extreme

Yesterday, I viewed "Letters from Iwo Jima", the 2nd of bookend movies about that epic WWII battle by Clint Eastwood. I've not yet seen the other, "Flags of our Fathers". Flags is presented from an American position, Letters from the Japanese position. All dialogue is in Japanese, with subtitles. It's a powerful movie, realistically smacking the viewer with the various insanities of war, but naturally concentrating on the particular insanities of the Japanese of that era... the extreme duty to their Emperor/God and their societal imperative to fight and die with honor.

I force myself, and encourage others to, delve deeply into the reality of war, because war is the shame of our species. We need to understand how humans, capable of such greatness, can be driven to descend so far into the madness of slaughtering each other. "Letters" is another such lesson.

Posted 11:55 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Did you know...

that we have, right here in River City, what may be the greatest airplane ever built, and that we can all go look at it? I didn't know until recently, when a news story appeared about the CIA wanting to take it from the Minnesota Air Guard. The plane is the A-12 Blackbird, which, way back in the 60's, became the fastest and highest flying of any airplane in the world, when it reached and maintained Mach 3.56 at 92,500 feet. The A-12, produced by Lockheed for the CIA, replaced the U-2 spy plane. It looks as awesome as it performs. The CIA now wants to place it in front of their headquarters in Virginia, despite the great effort and care the MN Guard took to move it here and put it on public display.

Here's a snap of some of the planes of the museum I captured from local.live.com. The museum has a website with lots more information.

Posted 10:14 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Is there life without the Internet?

I've been communicating via computer as long as it's been possible. Before there was a WWW (now just the Web), I was online using BBS (bulletin board systems), then on with AOL, which used to have it's own graphical interface, not Windows, and with Compuserve, which used to be where all the geeks hung out. I got cable as soon as it became available. It's hard for me to remember being without a personal computer, communicating with others.

This evening, I wrote a letter to my aunt, who will be 91 next month. She can't look at all the family photos I have online, so I included several in my printed letter. That's a poor substitute for being to view all of them online. When my mother was alive, I tried to get their retirement home to install an online computer that residents could have access to, to no avail. Being able to receive email and photos would do a lot to brighten senior years.

Posted 10:26 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

More dents in my immortality

More test results from "my" doctor arrived in the mail, indicating that I have a cholesterol problem, so my next grocery shopping list will have new inclusions and exclusions. Food has never been very important to me, so changing my diet is of little more importance than changing habits. I'll switch to oatmeal for breakfast, lo-carb bread (there is a tasty version available), substitute fish for chicken breasts, ground turkey for ground beef, sterol-fortified OJ and margarine if I can find them, and actually buy fresh fruits and veggies instead of just thinking about them.

I put "my" in quotes above because I've long hated the way people refer to advisors in that way, as if they were part of their personal team. Sure, it's much shorter to refer to "my doctor" than "the doctor randomly assigned to me by the clinic", but many people wield the short phrase as if it actually indicated some sort of ownership, with the implication that my doctor (or financial advisor, or dentist, or caterer, etc.) is better than yours. I've seen "my" doctor once, for about 5 minutes, so she is really "the" doctor. If she convinces me to have a prostate exam, maybe then she'll become "my" doctor (or my former doctor).

I'm getting accustomed to thinking of myself as mortal, at least for now. I've cut back on smoking, from 3 packs to about 1/day. That's a matter of just thinking about smoking rather than doing it automatically. I take a couple of drags and save the rest for later. I knew that wouldn't be difficult, because I often go for an hour or two without one, in certain circumstances.

All in all, though, facing ones mortality sucks, but the thought of dying is minor compared to the thought of being continually sick, or suffering dementia, or needing others for care. I'll be 68 in 9 days, and I don't feel that old, so I'm not ready to die, but going at that age, having had little grief over that many years, is a lot more natural than the recent sudden death of a cousin to a heart attack at age 20. That's a tragic loss... of a life barely begun.

Posted 10:34 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Back to normal

After an MRI, cardio echogram, and aortic ultrasound and some physical tests, a neurologist assured me that they all looked pretty normal. I did have a "mini-stroke", but it was pretty mild. Now begins my task of restoring my own confidence. During the time before I heard the test results, I was distracted by every little ache or twitch, wondering if they were "signs" of something coming. Such things are normal... now I can again take them as such, and not worry about them.

Posted 9:41 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

What a riot!

A southern California company responsible for building much of the border fence that helps keep illegal immigrants out of the country will pay nearly $5 million in fines - for hiring illegal immigrants... to build the fence to keep themselves out.

Posted 1:18 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Feast or famine

It seems to me that local sports results are often either all good or all bad. Perhaps I only notice when one or the other happens. Fortunately, tonight was one of those all-good times. The Gophers basketball team whupped Purdue, looking very determined and coordinated, and the Timberwolves beat San Antonio, which is something of an upset. Two very good games, with two very nice outcomes. The Gophers are tied for 1st in the Big 10, with a 1-0 conference record. Enjoy it while we can. :)

Posted 5:05 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

A chink in my armor

On Saturday, Dec. 30th, I had a "medical event"... a transient ischemic attack (TIA), commonly called a mini-stroke. The signal from my brain to my left leg and arm was temporarily faulty. I was back to normal within a minute or so, got dressed, made a couple of phone calls, and drove to the hospital where my daughter and I spent the afternoon, getting lots of tests that all showed normal.