Incursio

Saddam Hussein has been the boogieman for my entire adult life. This last weekend he was executed, and in my opinion it was about 15 years too late... For anyone who might be interested, there is a cell phone captured video of his hanging on Google video. It is kinda creepy. And I have to warn people - this is an actual video of an actual person being killed. Not everyone will want to see it. Here it is. Use your best judgement. May Saddam meet whatever eternal punishment may await him, and may the people who's lives he ruined have some form of justice. And may our current debacle in Iraq come to an end sooner rather than later and our troops come home safely , and hopefully the people of Iraq see peace within our lifetime.

How much will we pay? That is a question anyone who has loved someone has tossed about in their mind in one way or another... How much will we pay to save our loved ones? And for almost every sane person, the answer is "whatever it costs". And I understand completely, as a Father and a Husband, and a Brother and an Uncle - I agonize daily over the potential for loss in my family. And I have felt loss in the past, which I would give just about anything to have not experienced. As a loving human, I completely understand the issue. But also, as a rational being, I have to question some things. Because - how much are we as a society willing to pay for THREE mountain climbers? Mountain climbers, who for recreation purposes knowingly put themselves at risk. I would imagine the total financial cost will exceed $100,000. Granted, I am just a damn blogger, I have no real figures in front of me other than what is in that article. But it is not hard to see how our c...

Damn. Oregon is not included. T-Mobile Gets Sued Over Termination Fees But it is at least a start. If the suit is successful I can see some sweeping changes to mobile phone contracts. In fact, I predict some "pre-emptive" changes possibly coming soon. I have never understood why they charge so much for service cancellation fees. (They being not the magical "They" that is responsible for almost anything, but rather in this case I mean mobile phone providers in general). I mean - at most they are out the cost of the deal you got on the phone. They already usually charge you a setup fee, activation fee or something like that... That covers their manpower needed for the slightly-above-minimum-wage employee to type your name into the computer and open your box and show you the "on" button. Other than that labor involved, they mostly just need to recoup the cost of the phone. Say there is a groovy new Nokia phone that retails for $200 without any p...

Timberline Ski Area on Mt. Hood plans to begin their winter ski season this weekend, 11/16! Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Area is still innaccessible , but can open as soon as the road (Hwy 35) does. Mt. Hood Ski Bowl , and the smaller Summit Ski area , and Cooper Spur are all still awaiting more snow.

The Libre Maps project has purchased and made available for free all of the USGS Topographical maps of the USA. All 50 states. The maps have always been free sort-of, there was just no where until now to actually GET them for free. The Libre Maps project raised enough funds to buy the many gigabytes of data and the Internet Archive is hosting them. These are great 24k scale topographical maps folks. The same types you pay for in sporting goods stores. And many applications on your computers can work directly with them and your GPS. You can get water and tear resistant paper and print them out.. All good stuff... For the lazy in the audience, here are Oregon's.

Well, what a pisser. After dropping $400 for the 4x4 season pass to Meadows we might not get to ski at all. No matter what the snow is like. Highway 35 has been wiped out by mudslides. (I am not sure how long that page will be current, so just in case here is a screenshot of the page...) There are a few pictures of the damage here. Oh well. It is not like I needed that $400 anyway... Here are some more links: FOX 12 reporting Hood River News reports Maybe I get to test my Jeep's off-roading capabilities now. :) That Mt. Hood Fusion Pass - in hindsight - looks pretty good right about now...

Today we went to watch a couple NFL games (that were not being broadcast on local TV channels) at a sports bar that we had been to many many times in the past couple years. On Deck (although their web page sucks, here is the CitySearch profile ). We would go with our family because it was a great location, central city Portland (Pearl District / Brewery Blocks)- they had pretty good food (nothing awesome or worth mention but solid sports bar fare) and the TVs and atmosphere were great. However, as of just a few weeks ago they no longer allow minors. According to one waiter, the new management felt that minors would be exposed to too much swearing. (I am fully aware that it is a BS story but that is what they said). There was no management available on-site that I could speak with, but I was given contact information and I will be contacting them to find out what gives. I mean come-on. Kids who parents watch sports enough to go to a Sports Bar to catch the untellivised games...