Welcome to my little Nerdery on the Net! :)

They truly understand the design choices that went into our Constitution and government as evidenced by this quote at the end of an op-Ed in the Globe and Mail: “The gears of the American government come with the sand preinstalled. Even now – perhaps especially now – that’s something to be thankful for.” They compare their parliamentary system to ours and highlight that the chaos and stupidity currently on display in Washington isn’t really possible…

The first system I ever worked on was a document conversion workflow that was automated with state associated with each step a document took through the process from scanning to OCR and writing to electronic file formats. I just suggested adding rudimentary workflow state management to the administration application I support for Alexander’s therapeutic horseback riding. 26 years after that first job and here we go workflow again! ;)

As the "1922 Committee" of Tory backbenchers is voting on whether to execute the Prime Minister's political death warrant for her efforts in terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, one wonders if she's thinking about one Michael Collins. The Big Fellow was tasked by Eamon de Valera to go to London to negotiate a treaty with Britain for Irish independence. What he came home with didn't give de Valera the Republic he wanted and the…

This year's election cycle seems particularly ironic to me…

When you’re listening to the latter tracks of “The Wall” and it sounds so disturbingly close to contemporary political discourse that you can imagine current political “leaders” playing the parts…yeah, it’s time to take the hint… :(

(This was to my cousin Hannah's mother and came right after the senseless and hateful shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.) יום הולדת שמח We wish your day to be happy as can be and may it have many happy returns of the day! I’ve been thinking of you and Hannah often especially after yesterday’s news flash that came through as we were awaiting results at Nick’s marching band competition as to…

Totally gutted for pole sitter Valtteri Bottas who effectively had the win in Sochi taken away from him to favour Lewis in the driver’s championship. Was Toto right to hit the tactical button on his panel and make that call? Yes. But it still sucks. I’m with di Resta on this one…to be a fly on the wall during Merc’s debrief this evening. It should prove most interesting. Speaking of which…Vladimir Putin indicating that he’d…

Portland Thorns FC 0 - 3 NC Courage (FT) Most wins in a season (17). Most points in a season (57). Most goals in a season (53). Only one loss and 15 points clear at the top of the table. 2018 Women's International Champions Cup 2018 NWSL Shield (best regular season record) 2018 NWSL Champions First NWSL shield winner to ever win the NWSL championship. #NoFinishLine #TH3HUNT #NWSLChampionship #NCvPOR

The local news station has their helicopter working their way south from Raleigh…downtown Fayetteville actually looks fairly decent and the bridges are generally open but that water is right under the deck of the bridges (and at the railroad bridge just north of downtown, there are a bunch of logs piled up right at the bridge deck). Getting there from Raleigh would be a bit of a trick…most of I-95 is closed from US-64 (Rocky…

Just wanted to give all of my friends and family on Facebook a quick update…all is well here in East Raleigh. Other than a few power flickers and one outage lasting about a hour…my oldest son and I came through the storm just fine. NWS Raleigh is estimating we got about 8-10" of rain from Florence which was actually more than what Matthew dumped on us two years ago. There was localised flooding in the…

I just saw an alert that another tropical cyclone named Gordon has formed and will be wandering from the keys past the western coast of Florida and it reminded me of driving in the Tampa/St Petersburg area when Hurricane Gordon was passing close ashore in September, 2000. I had gone walkabout in the area whilst waiting for a pre-season tilt between the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning and was driving northbound over the Sunshine…

I've recently discovered HeidiSQL after driving Oracle's "MySQL Workbench" for years to develop a registration database/web application for Horses for Hope where Alexander does therapeutic horseback riding. Don't get me wrong…"MySQL Workbench" has been a wonderful tool for development, especially when it came to doing exports/imports as part of the backup and migration strategy for the application. However, I've recently found myself in the situation where I'm dealing with three different versions/flavours of MySQL: WAMPSERVER…

“The Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin was one of those generational talents that can never truly be replaced. I will never forget her belting out “Think” at Matt “Guitar” Murphy in “The Blues Brothers”…that bit in the Soul Food Cafe was by far the best scene for me in the entire movie and came at the perfect time to resurrect her career which was in a bit of a slump at the time. The Queen…

WRAL is reporting that Chuck Kaiton was offered a one year contract to stay on as the only radio broadcaster the Carolina Hurricanes and Whalers franchises has ever known. He turned them down….as well he should. Tom Dundon needs to learn there are ways you treat Hall of Famers in the NHL. Doing what he did to Ron Francis was classless enough but effectively chucking Chuck and the Letter K into the bin is just…

Translated - "What in the world just happened in Helsinki? "Pronounced - "Chto v mire tol'ko chto proizoshlo v khel'sinki??" Vladimir Putin has to be asking himself a cruder variation on that question as he boards his IL-96 and returns to Moscow when he reflects upon the events of the past several hours. No one in America should have been under any illusions who was holding whom by the plums before they met but if…

Words cannot describe just how amazingly cool James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” with Sir Paul McCartney was… :) So many cool parts but I have to say my favourite was the concert on the piano in his boyhood home. The look on that lady’s face was just priceless as they’re belting out “When I’m Sixty Four”… Of course…the acoustics demo of the bog in that house was a happy bonus! :)

If you notice even the most subtle mistakes when it comes to aviation and planes in movies or TV, you just might be an aviation geek! Case in point…the episode "20 Hours in LA" for "The West Wing". On the one hand, they did a good job with the stock footage of Angel rolling out after landing. Sadly, watching President Bartlet and entourage boarding a 747 showed that was as far as it got. Whilst…

How in the world was she allowed to travel with this jacket…much less put it on in full view of the cameras? And on a junket to tour the detention centres for kids who crossed the border illegally, no less! This. Is. Utterly. And. Breathtakingly. Stupid. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44570688

Their supporters did a decent rendition of “La Marseillaise” but the Peruvians blew them away in the stadium in Ekaterinburg! :)

As a dear friend from Katie's dance studio starts her journey to Italy today to celebrate the life of Antonio Pittorru with her famiglia on Sardinia, I was reflecting upon one of my traditions for the many times when I've had to make a similar journey. I'll often find a favourite album that speaks to me of the person who has left us and that'll be my traveling music. I've often found that the bards…

By now, I'm sure you've seen that Roseanne Barr's new show is now in the bin because ABC parent company Disney wanted to distance itself from her vile comments toward Valerie Jarrett. And did so with remarkable speed, I might add… That rather begs the question of why in the world would Disney ignore one of their most famous characters and fail to insist that everyone who works for them who has had a history…

The cameras have rather fixated on Lewis Hamilton climbing into the cockpit of his Mercedes and the gyrations he performs in the fire suit before dropping into the tub prompted this gem from the commentators: “There is Lewis Hamilton making an adjustment … of a rather personal nature!” That was putting it mildly!

As I was busy cutting the video I shot of Katie's Spring Band Concert (where she totally rocked that French Horn even though she was shielded by a huge music stand!), I was thinking of today being another very special day for a very special young lady. As Katie gets inducted into her school's Beta Club this evening, I will be thinking of my cousin Hannah who will be walking across the stage at her…

Whilst the kids are enjoying a little more hibernation this morning due to the schools being closed so that our teachers can make their voices heard in downtown Raleigh…I've got a few minutes to put some thoughts out there for your consideration. There's a whole heap of teachers amongst my father's side of the family…all the way from university to the one room schoolhouse where my grandmother taught in greater metropolitan Raleigh IL (oh, the…

Happy Mother's Day to those special ladies out there whose average day really makes you believe that they've originally come to us from the island of Themyscira! After all, they're much stronger than anyone would believe possible…accomplish far more in a day than you'd ever imagine…have far more patience than we could ever hope to have…and somehow seem to have harnessed the powers of the Lasso of Truth without even needing to brandish it. Moms…