Doing the News

Eleven years ago (well, at least in a few more days!), I unlocked the doors to this house for the first time and started what has been my last move of this rather itinerant life. I did the sums of all of the PCS (permanent change of station) and other moves through the years and figured out that I was averaging about one move every year I'd been alive with this 40th move. And if…

After yesterday's excitement, today's fun was collecting Katie for school and then making a quick run to the car hire place on Capital so that I could have a vehicle whilst Nicholas continued on to work at Leith Toyota. When they say that hiring a car is far more expensive than it has been in the past, they're not joking. There's hardly any inventory and what's there will cost an arm and a leg at…

The day started out lovely. OK, it was a bit chilly this morning and Darth Ruud has been particularly evil of late frosting up due to the temperatures dropping into the 20s with high humidity and it appears that the defrost cycle is either not kicking in to melt the frost or it is not handling the amount of frost on the coils. At least that's not an emergency and it'll be mended soon enough.…

This gallery responding to a recent tweet from WRAL was pretty much shooting fish in a barrel. Finding amusement in this world isn't hard and sometimes the jokes just write themselves... :)

This evening marked the beginning of Hanukkah which is the Jewish "Festival of Lights". It was surprising learning that it is actually one of the minor holidays on the Jewish calendar given the visibility it gets in the media during the festive season. Hanukkah has it's roots in the re-dedication of the Second Temple after the Maccabees successfully defeated the Greeks where there was only enough oil to light the lamps for a single day…

This post is my take on the recent verdict returned by the jury in Kenosha where Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges against him. Before I get into my opinion on this subject, I did a deep-dive on juries in general looking at a very brief history of how they came to be and a detailed discussion on trials by jury as practiced in America. It's a long read but it was well worth…

Last week, a Kenosha jury returned a verdict of "NOT GUILTY" on all charges in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse who was facing charges in the prisoner's dock relating to his role in killing two men and wounding a third during the unrest that followed the shooting of Jacob Black by the Kenosha police. My take on that particular case will be written presently but I want to concentrate on first exploring the notion of…

If you asked my Grandpa Williams which holiday on the calendar was his favourite, Thanksgiving was top of his list hands down. To be sure, he did enjoy Christmas and Easter and the others but Thanksgiving was the one he truly looked forward to and not just because of the massive turkey feast. If there was a holiday that captured the essence of his soul in terms of how he approached each day and not…

On the way toward Clayton on US-70 to drop the kids off after collecting them from school, I couldn't help but notice this BMW in the overtaking lane. At first, I didn't really think much of it but as he got closer, it was clear that the driver has had about all they can stand of the average North Carolina driver's propensity for sitting in the overtaking lane and going well slower than posted speed.…

As we the people celebrate Veterans Day and rightly salute those who chose to serve the citizens of this country by taking up arms and being the first line of defence that no enemy may cross, I would ask that we spare a thought or two for the millions of people who are often quietly standing in the shadows and whose service and sacrifice is usually taken for granted. These are not the ones who…

One of my favourite segments on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" was the bit at the end where he'd offer up a rather humourous and often satirical take on something that was mentioned during the show. It was introduced by "here's your moment of Zen". I had one this morning and it absolutely blew my mind just how much things have changed in the past few months. I wasn't quite expecting a moment of Zen…

I wasn't quite sure I could believe my eyes when the alerts started coming in fast and furious that heralded the welcome news that after 26 years of futility and anguish, the Atlanta Braves are once again World Series Champions. I just couldn't watch Game 6. Not after I had broken my unwritten rule and watched bits of Game 5 to see the grand slam in the first inning only to come back later and…

In my sister's birthday post a few days ago, I admitted that I'd been asking for a sister well before my mother and stepfather were married. It wasn't that I was implacably opposed to having a brother but rather the idea that little sisters were just a lot more interesting. The boy thing...been there, done that, not much mystery left if you catch my drift. A little sister, OTOH...that's terra incognita worthy of exploring. Halloween…

This morning's fun started out with a quick trip up the road to the garage to have the brakes mended after dropping Katie and Alex off at school. I honestly can't remember the last time the Traverse had a brake job. Seriously...I know she's had one in the distant past, possibly two but the brakes have held up remarkably well thanks to primarily driving on the motorways and using the engine braking more often than…

A few weeks ago, I spoke of a sister that I had never known other than by very rare mentions after watching a streamed performance of the play "Still. Birth." co-written by Robyne Parrish who at one point was the boss of the sister I'm writing to you about tonight. That of course is my sister Meghann who celebrates her birthday today and who I wish to have many happy returns of the day. I'll…

Every day, the headlines seem to be getting darker and grimmer almost by the minute. Hyper-polarisation of our political arena full of extremists on both ends of the spectrum screaming past each other rather than thoughtfully considering the other side's position and coming to some sort of a reasonable compromise in the middle. You know, kinda like we used to do in the not-so-distant past called the 1990s when you'd have politicians in the Senate…

I'm sure we all remember these lyrics which captures the essence of that morning you have (hopefully very rarely!) where you'd really rather had stayed in bed but couldn't thanks to all of the things to see and do and kids to schlep to school... Woke up, fell out of bedDragged a comb across my headFound my way downstairs and drank a cupAnd looking up, I noticed I was lateFound my coat and grabbed my…

After an exceptionally busy weekend volunteering with the Enloe High School Marching Band, I finally had an opportunity to see a performance of a play that was co-written by one of the most talented and amazing human beings I've ever known...Ms Robyne Parrish. I met Robyne for the first time in December of 2012 at the Gilbert Theatre in Fayetteville. Long story short, my sister had asked me to come shoot a dress rehearsal at…

Five years. Yeah, it came faster than I'd have ever imagined and it's why I've been a bit unsettled this past week or so. Five years. After all, that was supposed to be the length of the original voyages of the USS Enterprise on "Star Trek" for Pete's sake! Five years. That's how long "Babylon 5" ran on TV in the 1990s to complete one of the most epic planned story arcs in a series…

Some days, you really ought to just stay in bed! Seriously. Perhaps it's the lingering after-effects of the recent full moon which tends to bring out the crazies but today was full of completely mad buggers thinking that driving should be equivalent to "take out my Traverse in the most spectacular ways possible". I should have known that driving was going to royally suck when the approach to Enloe on a lane that is normally…

Only madmen could contain the thought, execute the act, fly the planes. The sane world will always be vulnerable to madmen, because we cannot go where they go to conceive of such things. We could not see it coming. We could not be here before it happened. We could not stop it. But we are here now. You cannot see us for the dust, but we are here. You cannot hear us for the cries,…

One of these days I'm going to learn how to ignore the siren calls of hubris (excessive pride, often leading to tears in the end!) when it comes to being handy at mending things round the house. It seems the universe takes a particular pleasure in making tasks that should seem utterly simple turn out to be the worst voyages of the damned I could possibly imagine. I do have a theory that this syndrome…

An open letter to Tom Dundon, owner of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey club. It's taken me a while to pen this little missive whilst I've come to grips with the decision to sign free agent defenceman Tony DeAngelo to a one year contract for the 2021-2022 season. I'm sure you've seen all of the hot takes over the past 24 hours since the free agency window opened and it's safe to say they've trended fairly…

Congratulations to Jeff Bezos and the intrepid crew on the first human crew flying aboard the New Shepard rocket for a successful mission above the line and back safely to the Earth! The line in question is one every Hungarian should be proud of because it's *OUR* line denoting the internationally recognised altitude where a craft is considered to have entered space. This is important for regulatory and jurisdictional purposes as aircraft and spacecraft operate…

In a manner of confession, this is exactly the thought I have when I'm filling up the Traverse at the petrol station and not just when the stations spike the prices thanks to the crisis du jour... ;) I didn't expect the people running the Colonial Pipeline to be IT wizards but when you're part of an industry that has more money than God, I do think it reasonable to expect that people who are…