It’s been almost 2 years since Steve Bartman mingled with destiny and helped the Cubs blow a sure-fire shot at the World Series. Now ESPN’s Wayne Drehs tries to answer all the pesky unanswered questions that still remain.
Category: personal
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Most Overrated Songs of All Time
Blog Critics has posted the Top 13 Most Overrated Songs of All Time. Here’s a taste:
5. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Def Leppard
In an age of overrated songs ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ rose to the occasion. Has anyone listened to the lyrics? “Mirror queen, mannequin, rhythm of love.. Do you take sugar? one lump or two?” It makes absolutely no sense. And the drums might as well be a beat box, or a late 80’s Casio keyboard with the ‘Rock Drum’ button to play along with. The guitar riffs are bland, and for some reason Joe Elliot is trying to passionately scream words like ‘saccharine’. It just doesn’t work, but for some reason people love this song. I guess it’s the loud kick and the double tracked vocals.
Sadly, a couple of my favorites made the list. For reasons of dignity, I won’t divulge which ones.
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Willie’s picnic
Late Tuesday night, and Lauren and I just returned from Dallas-Ft Worth. Its great to be home. Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic was incredible. After lunch today, we went to Ameriquest Field in Arlington and took a tour. It was fascinating to see the press boxes, owner’s luxury suite, dugouts, training areas, etc. The Red Sox were in town tonight for a game with the Rangers (we saw a few roaming around aimlessly) but we were unable to stay that late since we had to head home.
Click on the Flickr badge on the right side of this page to view some of the photos we took. Or just click here.
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Willie’s 2005 picnic
We’re looking forward to going to Willie Nelson’s 4th of July picnic this year, mainly because Bob Dylan is headlining. This will be my second Dylan concert. Went to lunch with Lauren and some of her work friends this afternoon, then helped Lauren pick out a hat for the concert. It’s going to be hot on Monday.
On Sunday, we’re visiting friends in Dallas and helping to celebrate the one-year birthday of their baby. What do you buy a 1-year old?
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Google Doodle –– Frank Loyd Wright
In celebration of his birthday, Google has an excellent tribute to Frank Loyd Wright on the main page today. -
The state of ethics vs. Jamaican law
A friend and colleague of mine, Keisha McKenzie, is spending time at home in Jamaica this summer but apparently is not taking time off as an ethicist. She seems to have taken issue with this article on the state of ethics vs. Jamaican law, which appeared in the Jamaica Gleaner:
The Jamaican people are now aware that corruption is rampant in high places. Scandal after scandal is exposed in the media but the political apologies, quick to limit wrongdoing to what is defined in law, rationalise away the ethical element by claiming that there is no corruption unless it can be proved that the act resulted in unjust enrichment, conveniently forgetting the benefit that might accrue to party or comrade.
It is high time that we stop trying to deal with corruption in purely legal terms. The Prime Minister’s recent call for the development of a code of conduct to address corrupt officials in the public sector may be a long overdue step in the right direction, especially his instructions that every ministry and agency should appoint a senior officer who would have responsibility for monitoring the ethical behaviour of staff.
Keisha retorts in this letter to The Gleaner:
Nobody should ever defer his/her thinking-about-ethics (and, hence, his/her accountability) to an ‘ethics expert.’ Let every bucket stand on its own bottom: private citizens and public officials must accept full responsibility for their own ethical or unethical reasoning and behaviour. Employing ethics experts or relying on periodic workplace training is an insufficient response to ‘rampant corruption’ unless individual employees also integrate strong ethical principles into their personal and business practices.
One won’t learn to drive by yielding the steering wheel to someone else, however knowledgeable or well-meaning that substitute is. In the same way, ethics cannot appropriately be legislated by the government or delegated to company monitors. Ethics flow from the bottom up, not from the top down; we must all develop ethical sensitivities and habits individually. If, however, we each cede our ethical authority to ‘professional ethicians,’ unfortunate excuses like ‘the expert made me do it’ won’t be long in coming.
Well said, Keisha. Ethics cannot only be legislated, it must happen at a much more smaller, organic and self-deliberating level. When Keisha returns to Texas, I look forward to picking up on some of our discussions pertaining to the state of ethics in Technical Communication.
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May 30, 2005
Lauren and I spent Memorial Day at the pool with our iPods, Subway, and a textbook or two. I think I got too much sun.
Dr. Rich Rice has shared with me several links pertaining to wireless access in downtown areas. This week I’ll be preparing correspondence to the Lubbock City Council pitching the idea of free wireless access in downtown Lubbock.
Here are some links pertaining to the wireless initiative:
WiMax and WiMax Forum
From Steven Krause:
NOW on Politics of Municipal Broadband Networks
Interview with Lawrence Lessing
A Wireless Washtenaw County? -
Lauren’s grandmother turns 97 on Wednesday
My fiance Lauren’s parents and grandmother came over tonight. Lauren’s grandmother turns 97 on Wednesday, and I am pretty sure she is in better shape than anyone I know. She’s an inspiration to everyone who knows her. Literally, everyone.
To put her 97 years into context:
– she was 33 when Pearl Harbor was attacked
– she was 61 when man set foot on the moon
– she was 25 when The New Deal began
– she was 78 when the space shuttle Challenger disaster occured
– she was 43 when Mickey Mantle first appeared in a Yankee uniformWhen you put her life experience into context like this, you can see how truly amazing her history and experience is. Now consider that she lives on her own, and she still makes the finest cheddar cheese dinner rolls you have ever eaten.
I won’t mention the gravy she makes, because words cannot describe it.
Michael Castellon 