I am running a vote for the Burgermeister for the Germania Society's40th Oktoberfest on August 27-29.

Vote here, vote often.

The voting and tabulation pages are all Domino and jQuery.

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Pat and I returned last night from a delightful week with my daughter Rachel, Jorge (her husband) and Miriam (their 14 month old daughter).

There are a ton of pictures here, here, and here.

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Elizabeth Berstien summed up my sentiments on this whole Social Networking stuff in the Wall Street Journal.

Notice to my friends: I love you all dearly.

But I don't give a hoot that you are "having a busy Monday," your child "took 30 minutes to brush his teeth," your dog "just ate an ant trap" or you want to "save the piglets." And I really, really don't care which Addams Family member you most resemble. (I could have told you the answer before you took the quiz on Facebook.)

. . . Amidst all this heightened chatter, we're not saying much that's interesting, folks. Rather, we're breaking a cardinal rule of companionship: Thou Shalt Not Bore Thy Friends.

Verizon Wireless also has been running a commercial in the US showing some overly trendy parents overdoing the whole Twitter/Facebook thing.

I have only used Twitter briefly while at Lotusphere and IamLUG conferences. Even there the percentage of totally useless drivel I had to filter out to get an occasional nugget of insight was phenomenal. I have given up following opening Twitter clients because the good information I might get is completely drowned out by Richard's ".. new office mate is The Dread Pirate Roberts"

At the same time, Facebook has become, for me, almost entirely a gaming place due to the insidiously addictive Mafia Wars from Zinga. The odd thing about this is that I am very rarely interested in playing games on the computer. It is very curious that I now look forward to the hour or so of wasted time doing jobs, buying Mega Casinos and beating up on lower level players to pick up some valuesd loot. I keep telling myself to blow away the 2,000+ "friends" I have recruited to make my character stronger so I can actually see more of the stuff from people (like my duaghter) who really are friends. But doing so, it seems, would simply give me another place to see the Tweets that have caused me to disdain Twitter.

Perhaps the reason I do not appreciate the noise created by these networks is connected to my general unwillingness to "Toot my own horn" or make noise at the same level of noise that bothers me as I hear it from others. Perhaps this also applies to blogging. I have tried to use Planet Lotus and various readers, but the noise level even there drowns out the valuable nuggets.

So I will continue to participate infrequently in these new social mediums until I have something (I think is) real to say. Anyone who wants to tell me why that is wrong can reply here or tweet it someplace that I can more easily ignore.

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Those that know me pretty much at all know that I have a redneck side that some say covers 98% of what I do. I enjoy NASCAR, throwing real steal-tip darts, going to car shows, cooking pigs and just about anything that involves drinking beer with friends. Most of those activities have been done with Dale Scholer, the guy who is as close to a best friend as I have in this world. In addition to the redneck stuff, Dale and I have gone to the Masters tournament together, attended several Blues events, poured beer at other events, eaten some exceptional food together (prime rib to roast pork to Italian sausage) and we do stuff that perhaps should not be exposed in a public place like this.


Over the last two years, Dale has declined significantly due to a genetic kidney condition. Of his five siblings, three got the condition and two were spared. Last year Dale's brother and sister both got kidney transplants, one from another sibling and the other from a deceased donor. At the time, Dale's kidney function had not declined far enough to warrant a transplant, but that soon changed. When he did get to the requisite 20% function, his eligibility for a transplant was delayed several months due to a lingering pre cancerous condition of the skin on his leg. When that finally cleared up, and the doctors checked everything out it became clear that his brother could be an effective donor.

Dale got his brother's kidney two weeks ago, and is recovering OK, though he has quite a ways to go. In order to prevent rejection and the chance of infection the doctors will not allow him to go to work or be in public gatherings for two to three months. So Dale is pretty much stuck at home. However, I setup Skype with a video feed on his computer so he can communicate. His Skype account is "dale.scholer"

Next Friday, July 3, 2009 from 3PM to 8PM several of Dale's friends are holding a benefit for him to raise a few dollars to help defray expenses. He has some insurance but has no short term disability to pay for normal living expenses while he is out of work. We hope to close that gap a bit. THe benefit will be at Tina's bar at 4th and Central in downtown Cincinnati. Here is the flyer:



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Recently a personnel change was made at a large company with which I interact quite a lot. The change affected one of the people with whom I interact. I was at the same time saddened to loose the excellent support of person leaving the position, happy for them because of the new opportunity they have, and curious about the new person and how they might continue to provide the support to which I have become accustomed. At no point did I concern myself with the facts that a white middle age American woman was being replaced by a white, somewhat younger German man. At least this did not occur to me until I read the welcoming post of someone else in the community which read "Welcome - great a European! "

Until that point I had not noticed and really did not care. With that post I had to consider if it was or was not a good thing. As a result, I am much more bothered that it makes any difference to anyone if the person is anything other than effective at their job.

This made me reflect on the recent wave of "public-service" commercials going on in the US about the value of a diverse community and that those who grew up or now live in communities without diversity are somehow worse off. What strikes me wrong is that anyone cares how diverse someone else's background might be. What they should care about is if a person can interact in meaningful and effective ways, regardless of their nonbusiness attributes.

In business, politics and most every aspect of life, how effective and meaningful our interactions with others are will determine our level of success in the long run. None of the labels associated with race, gender, national origin, political persuasion, sexual orientation mean a hill of beans if the interactions with others do not work. Those that care about the balance of these attributes which should be unimportant are simply creating and perpetuating the problem, most likely because they have found a way to profit or otherwise benefit from the decisiveness they cause.

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It seems President Obama has been paying mere lip service to reigning in uncontrolled pork and spending in the federal government. Today he will sign the omnibus appropriations bill with 9000+ earmarks and untold spending {link}. So clearly his statements of absolutes are are relatively absolutes unless they conflict with another part of his untold and out-of-control agenda.

So what is next. Well the Attorney General who thinks we are all cowards has declared the water boarding is "a form of torture that the Obama administration could never condone." How long will it be before that principle is left by the way side as other seem to be.

And do not try to tell me it is out of respect for human life. Confirmed abortionists have no claim to that supposed moral high road.

Newbs

Never put off until tomorrow what you can forget about forever.
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Do we live in the time of the "Worst catastrophe since the Great Depression" or the time of the biggest rip off of all times. The main stream media seems to ignore the facts and support President Obama's contention that we are in uncharted dire straits. But the facts, though grim, do not support the severe reaction we are hearing.

Unemployment currently stands at 7.6%, up a whopping 2.2% in the last year with expectations that it will increase more in the next year. In 1930, the first year of the Great Depression, unemployment increased by 4.8%, the first of three years of huge job losses. (see {link}). By another measure automobile production has fallen 25% in the last year contrasted to a 90% decline in 1930.

These numbers sadly show we are not in the catastrophe that our political leaders describe. But we could end up there because of the their policies and failed leadership. The promise of transparency and change has been replaced with the most completely hidden and earmark laden legislation of all times. In the name of stimulus the democrats in congress have given us a litany of social agenda spending programs, most of them totally unknown to those who voted for or against the bill.

Clearly Mr. Obama, supported by the liberal media, is a master of the political spin. Even more clearly, he and his woeful choices for cabinet members do not have a clue about the real economical situation.

Or perhaps they do understand what they are doing and they are using the crisis to move all the wealth of this great nation to their control. Either way their actions if not checked will be the end of freedom and prosperity as we know it.

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Miriam Patricia Freire Newberry was born at 15.30 CEDT (central European daylight time) on 9 July 2008 in Acalá De Henares outside of Madrid, Spain. She weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz.

Mother: Rachel P Newberry de Freire and Father Jorge Freire are delighted to welcome her to their family.

Pat and I will be travelling to Spain on 21 July to begin the process of spoiling our grandaughter as well as visiting with Rachel and Jorge.

I will post pictures as I get them. I warned you!

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