Crazy Onion Soup and My Relatives

A few years ago, when I first dug up the beds in which we now have the strawberries and raspberries, somebody gave me some "crazy onions" to plant for use as green onions -- like shallots. They grow like weeds, and as the plants mature, they produce heads that contain small bulblets and florets. Some of the bulblets have baby onions; the idea appears to be that the adult onion leaves fall over and the bulblets grow into new bunches of onions.

They are all over the raspberry patch now, and have grow up waist-high, with two and even three generations of onions on the same plant. I was thinking about simply tearing them out, since they are very strong flavored, and, as green onions, somewhat stringy at times.

I got this idea, this afternoon, however. The kiddles were arguing over the pickled garlic cloves in the pepper jar last time they were together, and I began to wonder if the crazy onion bulblets could be pickled like those little pearl onions people buy as appetizers. I went out and gathered as many as I could find, and started breaking the bulblets off and cleaning away the outer skins.

As I realized that I would not have much more than a quart of the little stinkers, I decided I would turn them into onion soup. They are sort of like matryoshka dolls in that you peel away one layer, and inside will be another bulblet, and you break that apart, and inside ... Yeah. These things would make onion soup. but not French onion soup. It would have to be Russian onion soup. Crazy Slavs.



My fingers stink from peeling onion bulblets. The soup was simple -- boiled onions, some beef bouillon, and a touch of salt. We shall consider the consequences later.

Ah, yes. Who Daddy me? Back on 1-5-09 I stated that I thought Geni.com could be a useful and fun idea, but I had some security concerns. Joonyah was of the opinion that putting family information on Geni.com was not too terrible a threat to personal security. I thunk about it, and he is prolly right. If I have the correct information, it is better that I put it there than to let somebody else put bad info up. This is especially the case when I think about the posts from some of the people reading this blog and asking for help in tracking down their roots.

So. I have filled in a bunch of other stuff on my tree. Corrected some stuff that John Hunyadi had wrong. Added information from the Hrubik Reunion booklet from 1984 (when there were a lot more of Dad's generation still around). I will be contacting some of our common tree dwellers with invitations to join Geni and take charge of their own branches. Steve Webel (Bob's boy, for those who know a little and might be interested in more) who is off in faraway China, has put HP and Bek in his tree, mis-spelling her name. Also Erwin and Emily Webel (who are in my tree as well, via my great-uncle, Pal Hrubik). I need to contact him to merge our trees. Also, Emmie (Pamer) Hill, in my tree (via Anna (Knab) Hill, my great-aunt), is the sister of George Pamer (in John Hunyadi's tree, via Dave and Barb), and he and I are going to have to work out how to do the merge (more like a loop maybe, since our trees are already merged). I know that some of Uncle Dan's grandchildren and great-grandchildren are interested in finding family also.

I have heard that everyone in the world has at least one common ancestor if you go back only eight generations. Playing with only four or five generations, I can almost believe it.

'fore I fergits

Just for fun...

"Who Daddy You?"

Uncle Mike was our favorite. He was full of stories, and when he and Dad got together talking about their boyhood, it was a real hoot. They told of running wild through the Virginia woods, doing all the things little Hrubik boys do when nobody is watching (apparently Grandma was too sick most of the time to keep up with her little jungle critters). Girls, when you marry a Hrubik and little boys come out, your life will forever after be interesting.

Uncle Mike often told how they found Civil War relics -- the Battle of Seven Pines was fought partly on their farm -- and how he fell into a trench one day. Then there was the time the boys wandered up to an old cabin, and the man sitting on the porch asked only one question, "Who Daddy you?". As Uncle Mike told it, it scared them, both because of the man's fierce demeanor, and the fact that they spoke hardly any English at that time. All three, Emil, Mike, and Carl, streaked back off into the woods.

Uncle Mike and Dad laughed over that one. I first heard it when I was about 7 or 8 years old. When I was 8, I bought my first bike, a 26" Huffy Roadmaster, from my classmate, Tom Goila, who lived about six or seven houses south on Dover Avenue. Once I had that bike, I became the milk and bread delivery system, riding down to the Lawson store where Diagonal, Mercer, and Bisson came together.

For a while, there was still a vacant lot on Peerless, and we preferred to ride through that rather than go all the way to Mercer on Bellevue, but when a house was built there, we had to stick to the street. That took us past the Pure Oil station on the north corner of Mercer and Diagonal.

Pure Oil, you say? What is that? Back in the Good Old Days, when American companies worried mostly about selling products to Americans, we had all kinds of enticing labeling. I remember when "EXXON" began -- the name was chosen so that people in foreign countries (that is what we used to call world markets) would not find something offensive about it in their language, and we Americans were too stupid to be offended by that. Ah, yes, Pure Oil, with its round signs, and pretty blue lettering, and the bright blue trim on the buildings, even blue roofs.

One day the tire on my bike was a bit low, and I stopped at the Pure Oil station to fill it. This was right after one of Uncle Mike's visits. There were several men sitting around in the garage, and after I returned the air gauge (oh, yes, they would let you borrow the gauge to check your tires!), one of the men stared at me and growled, "Who Daddy you?". His gruff manner, and his accent, both matched exactly the man in Uncle Mike's story. I told him who my Daddy was, and rode off wondering whether or not the incident was some sort of set-up arranged by Uncle Mike.

Old stories are part of family lore. That's part of why I bother with this blog. It also leads to some interesting interchanges, like the dino discussion some time back, where a crack about a news article actually had both researchers (from England) posting here. The family history stuff seems to get people stirred up a bit. Mention of place names, like Glozan, and Mokrim, and Henrico County, and Harrow, gets picked up by webcrawlers and the blog ends up as a search result.

Unfortunately, it is hard to track some of those folks down. Or, maybe, once they hear from me, it scares them off. The September 23, 2006 post (right after the taped interview with Grannie Annie) pulled in this:

miklovic said...
Iam a member of Miklovic family that has theirs roots in Hlozany. One of my grandfathers relatives lives Hlozany in 1930 and immigrate to Canada. Now I am trying to get to contact with Miklovic family from Canada if you could help me.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2008 4:19:00 PM EST

Grandpa Jim said...
Hey, there, Miklovic. You need to fill in more of your Blogger profile; it would be nice to have a name and email address to reply to.

What was the name of your grandfather's relative?

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2008 10:57:00 AM EST

miklovic said...
name was Jozef Joe

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2008 5:08:00 PM EST

miklovic said...
my e-mail is miklovic2001@yahoo.com and my grandfather relatives lives in Harow

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 2008 5:09:00 PM EST

Anonymous said...
Today is June 2/09. I just found this site and am so thrilled that I did. I was born a Cipkar. My parents are Paul and Kata from Harrow. My grandfather is Paul who was married to a Suzana. They came from Glozany and my great grandfather's name was Stefan who was married to Ana. Apparently my great grandfather held a government office position in Glozany. I would love to trace my family tree and when I saw this information on the web, I was thrilled that possibly I may be able to get some further information about my family. I see that these postings happened in 2006. If you could provide any information to me, I would greatly appreciate it. My email is k_c34@gmail.com

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2009 1:02:00 PM EDT

So I called Grannie Annie and asked about that. We finally got it figured out. k_c34 is just slightly off; her great-grandfather Stefan is Mom's Uncle Steve (her Dad's brother). I sent a reply email,
but got a Mailer-Daemon reply that the email account does not exist. So, k_c34, if you are reading this, you know what happened.

Then, to top it off, a few hous later I got this, as a comment in the May 30, 2009 post:

Jaroslav said...
Hello I am writing you from Serbia, my grandfather was Samuel Miklovic from Glozan or Hlozany on Slovak . I am searching form some relatives in Canada , my grandfather was tailor like his two brothers Jano and Emil

TUESDAY, JUNE 2, 2009 5:33:00 PM EDT

Jaroslav needs to also fill in his blogger profile and provide an email address. Unfortunately, most of what I know about the Miklovics would fit in a thimble. Joe Miklovic's kids, John, Mary, and Susie are the ones I knew -- John Miklovic married Mary Cipkar, John Cipkar married Mary Miklovic, and Steve Cipkar married Susie Miklovic. They had a cousin, Ed Miklovic, who lived in Union City PA. That's all I know, folks.

Anyhoo, gotta get back to making sawdust.

A Spud Investment

This Wooly Bear thinks it might be a hard winter. Gotta store up some 'taters. Went to Aldi and bought a 10 pound bag of russets (gen-yew-wine Ider-hoes, according to the label) for $2.99. Made sure they had cute little eyes that looked like they could sprout if given some dark moisture.

Cut them up, with at least one eye per chunk.

Stuck them into the row, about 6" - 8" apart. Roughly half the bag planted two rows about 30 feet long each. This is a new bed, special for spuds this year. We'll see how they do.

This is also a new bed, with the broccoli and cabbage plants.

The garden planted itself the other day; a row of Blue Lake bush beans, two rows of wax peppers, a row of Rutgers, double row of onions, half row of jalapenos and half row of banana peppers, row of beets, row of Roma tomatoes, row of parsnip and rooted parsley. Still have to stick in the cucumbers and carrots. I think the blueberry patch will be a good spot for a few hills of Charleston Grey watermelons, and I need to locate some spots for the bush butternut squash and the Big Max pumpkins.

The strawberry beds are looking pretty. Almost all the grape cuttings appear to be rooting. Maria said hers failed to root. These will have to go to new homes come the fall.

And ... my new pegboards are up in the garage, and the baseboard is done in the downstairs bedroom and dining room.

I Needed That Nap

I started about 10 AM, and finished just after 3 PM. Then I showered and took a nap.

The Jonathan

and the Golden Delicious

and the Rome. They have never set fruit so heavily before. I sprayed (petal fall) yesterday. Lord willing, we will have apples to eat in the fall.

Time to eat the lettuce now.

It goes good with eye of round. And some fresh asparagus. Washed down with a cold Bud. YUM!!

The tomatoes need to be turned loose soon.

This was yesterday's project. My Better Half started those boxwoods from cuttings. People just don't appreciate the planning and waiting she has put into this place. She dreams, and sometimes her dreams would be catastrophic if they met up with gravity. My job is to turn her dreams into workable plans, then make the plans work. Some of that has taken years. She has put up with the dirt and the inconvenience, all for the sake of seeing dreams come to life.

I love you, Violet.

Front Views

The azaleas are almost done blooming.

The grass needs to be planted.

Get Your Pork Now

It is time to start another conspiracy theory.

"Everyone knows" that the government is out to control its citizens.

"Everyone knows" that our current administration has been infected (we once used the term "infiltrated", but I think under today's conditions, "infected" is apt) with hard-core anti-people pro-pagan socialists. The current administration is well versed in demagoguery, but sometimes schemers forget that no plan of battle survives contact with the enemy. When you start a stampede, don't try to change horses in mid-stream. (I love those old saws!)

This week we are beset with "swine flu". All over the world, governments are racing to slaughter pigs. The administration is suddenly worried that calling this disease "swine flu" will cause people to avoid pork, and ruin the pork farmers. The price of pork is set to rise, you betcha.

I see the hand of PETA (Pagans for the Extermination of Thoughtful Americans) in this. "Swine flu" is a ploy to stop people from eating pigs. Next month we will have an outbreak of "Mad Cow" disease, and steak and hamburgers will disappear from the menu. Then will come an epidemic of "Chicken Pox", and all the Illegal Aliens working at the chicken processing plants will be out of their jobs and eligible for a stimulus payment of some kind.

Yup. Grandpa Jim has it all figgered out. Conspiracies Unlimited, that's me. I guarantee that you will find it difficult to tell when I am serious and when I am delirious.

Stay tuned as I guide you into more lucidity than any Compact Florescent Light could ever provide.

Ooooo... another brainstorm... space aliens from Mercury... CFLs... there will be a shortage of tinfoil hats...

"Flat Pimento 1992"

The printing on the piece of paper towel brought back fond memories. My Dad, carefully recording in detail the events of his life, spoke out of the past.

The story : Dad loved his garden. He especially loved his peppers. Unlike his son and his grandsons, he tended to avoid spicy peppers. He liked his sweet and meaty. Sometime in the mid-1960's, he was given some small bell type peppers by one of his co-workers. Dad enjoyed them, and saved the seed, year by year selecting the sweetest and thickest-meated of his produce.

Every Spring he would begin his ritual. He soaked the pepper seeds for a day or so, then planted them in a shallow container under the florescent lights in the kitchen. Once the second leaves appeared, he would fix up the cover on his cold frame, and transplant the seedlings to await the last frost. (I'm not sure; this could be hereditary behavior. If so, my children-in-laws are in for some fun.) Typically, Dad would set out 50 or so of his sweet pimento plants in the garden.

As noted above, Dad selected for sweetness and thick walls. The peppers would mature at about 2-1/2"-3" in diameter, and were flattened, about 2" high. Even when green the peppers were great snacks, and as they ripened and turned red, their sweetness increased. We picked them and ate them like apples, right there in the garden.

After Dad retired, he and Mom started spending their winters in Phoenix. Sometime around 1997-98, he decided that it was time to stop worrying about being home in time to plant peppers in the Spring. He gave his seed to a family friend, with the requirement that she would start the seeds and give him a few plants for his garden after he returned from Phoenix. Life has no guarantees beyond dying; the friend did just that over the Winter and Dad never did get his pepper plants. Worse, he had given away all of his seed, as far as he knew. Every Spring for the next several years, he would recount the tale of the lost seed; he missed his peppers.

The other day I called Mom to see if she had any caraway seed. I was looking all over for some in the grocery stores. (Hey, why pay Big Money® for a packet of seed when you can get lots and to spare in a bottle of spice-grade condiment?). Yes, she had some, how much did I need, (a teaspoon full was plenty to start a caraway patch in the garden), and by the way -- she found a bottle with a note in it. "Flat Pimento 1992".

I went to see what she had. Wrapped in the paper towel were several hundred seeds that Dad had dried and stored 17 years ago. He had apparently forgotten they had been saved.

Taking the seeds home, I cut a paper towel in half and laid it in a dinner plate, scattered about a hundred seeds on it, folded it over, and added water. The seeds soaked for about 48 hours, swelling and developing the little pimples that would become rootlets. In the cloudyhouse I made a furrow where the first lettuce crop had been. (Oh. Forgot to tell about that. I transplanted a few dozen each of romaine and simpson and about sixty-five buttercrunch plants to the other side of the cloudyhouse, leaving a space for some more seed starts. Maybe we have salad soon?). Into the furrow went the soaked seed. Now for the wait.

Whazzat noise? Did I hear Mixie cheering?

Buttercrunch, Romaine, and Black-seeded Simpson.

From the far end : the Flat Pimento furrow, a row of Calabrese brocolli, 2 rows of onions, a row of Golden Acres cabbage, 2 rows of jalapeños, 2 rows of Rutgers tomatoes, 2 rows of spicy wax peppers, 2 rows of Roma tomatoes, 2 rows of spicy banana peppers, a row of chilis. Figure about 100 seedlings per row. I need more ground.

... padded from both sides ...

Way back on February 27, 2007 -- (Man! Over two years ago!) -- I stated that I had decided to read On the Origin of Species in order to be a fair critic of Reverend Darwin. (What? You had no idea that he was a clergyman?) In that post I commented that I had fallen asleep in the first chapter.

Beloved, it does not surprise me that Charlie D. gave up theology for biology. I thought I was bad, based on the number of nods per minute the pulpit sleepometer records. Not only did I fall asleep in the first chapter, but also in just about all of the chapters. In fact, a week or so after that fateful post, I fell asleep in Chapter 7 and put the project on the back burner.

As it happened, about a month ago I figured that I had better finish the project, so I started over again with Chapter 1. A few days ago, I finished Chapter 14, the final chapter. I have now read the entire unabridged first edition of On the Origin of Species.

Darwin's theory of progressive change was rooted in his familiarity with the selective breeding of domestic plants and animals. As I mentioned above, he was a clergyman, and also quite religious. It is clear, however, that his religion was one that centered around a worship of Nature, and it is interesting to read his statements that seem to personalize Nature. In fact, and this will anger some of the E Camp people, Darwin makes statements that imply that Nature has produced similar adaptations, in widely separated and different species, by some sort of Intelligent Design. Of course, he also makes the statements which infuriate the C Camp people, namely, that there is no reason to invoke special creation of species when his theory adequately (in his mind) explains the origin of all species.

Now I will upset a number of people.

I think Darwin has postulated a working explanation for change -- spell that e-v-o-l-u-t-i-o-n -- which is rational and has quite a bit of utility. The concept of natural selection was founded in the observation that humans selectively breed their domestic stock and create new varieties by keeping the stock with desired traits and eliminating the stock that does not have those traits. To that end, his theory makes sense.

Darwin, however, made (and admitted to) a number of assumptions which were necessary to accept his theory and reject special creation. He assumed that geological change occurs steadily and peacefully, without any catastrophic events. This we know to be untrue. He also assumed an extremely old age for the earth, which he inferred from geological strata but which scientists today infer from radioactive decay and from a "flat space" concept of the universe, both of which suffer from being rooted in additional assumptions.

Cascading assumptions create superstition, not science.

True science draws its strength from an understanding of probabilities. A "law" of science is a statement of something that has been observed to be true on every occasion. If there is one chance out of an infinite number of trials that the "law" does not hold true, then it must either be rejected or revised to account for the exception. Without a witness to an event, causation cannot be proven. [Failure to abide by this dictum in the legal arena, by embracing the concept of "circumstantial evidence", has without doubt been responsible for the wrongful conviction and execution of innocent people. It is for this reason that God required that at least two witnesses were necessary for a capital conviction. The use of "circumstantial evidence" in a court of law is a perversion of justice based on a thorough misunderstanding of the nature of science.] The use of evolution as a tool in the biological sciences is extremely important, but it can never point to first causes due to the assumptions which must be made regarding events for which there have been no witnesses.

Therefore, each person has a choice set before himself. He must decide whether to believe that God created and maintains the world by His design and ability, or that "Nature" has accomplished the same thing through pure serendipity. Both positions require a leap of faith; at the bottom of every logic pit are the bones of belief.

I choose to believe that God created and maintains the world. I also choose to believe that He operates through "natural selection", with the understanding that He not only does not "play at dice", but there is no such thing as pure randomness.

If you think such a position points to a careless and unloving God, beware, for He created me as a facultative carnivore, and I work toward the extinction of less adaptive varieties by eating them, and He blesses all my meals, for which I thank Him.

So, now that I have refused to walk down the middle of the road, and indeed, have set off cross-country like a bee going from flower to flower, I expect to hear from all those who believe they are on the Narrow Way simply because they think they have avoided the Ditch. Be careful that you know the difference between the two.

Da Newz

Thought I'd throw in a picture of another finished product.

Stuffsapoppin in the cloudyhouse. Also transplanted the garlic seedlings that got started in the asparagus patch. All 184 of them.

I Apologize

Maria called to let me know that she was disappointed with my post. She made some very good points. I will turn off the sarcasm and disrespect when mentioning the President.

I Made a Moofie

I done did it. I turned the photos I took while changing the front brakes on the ZX2 into a narrated slideshow and exported that into an mpeg-4 movie. It is roughly 75 mB long, about 7-1/2 minutes. I was going to upload it to Blogger, but then I read the terms and decided that I will post it to my web space. Anybody needing to look at it can email me for the URL.

Just call me Cecil B, baby. I have reinvented Hollywood.

... but will HE bow to the pirates?

It cannot be easy being el Presidenté King of the United States. People expect heroic actions. It is a far cry from Neighborhood Organization.

President King Obozo has some life or death decisions to make. The captain of a U.S. flagged vessel is being held hostage by pirates who boarded his vessel but were eventually persuaded to leave. Too bad Obozo never studied military history.

Vessels like the Maersk Alabama which are flying the flag of the United States are part of the United States Merchant Marine. Under long-standing maritime practice (for historical background, study the Barbary Wars), it is considered an act of war for any military force, whatever its composition, to attack a vessel which is part of the United States Merchant Marine. Had the U.S. Congress officially declared war on "terrorism", the Merchant Marine at that point would have become an arm of the U.S. Navy.

Even without a declaration of war (the Barbary Wars were not declared wars, either) the existence of a state of war can, de facto, place the Merchant Marine within the Navy. Since Congress has not seen fit to declare any war since June 5, 1942, the de facto War on Terror, funded by Congress (but somehow recently declared to be finished by the Executive Branch) makes the Merchant Marine a de facto arm of the U.S. Navy.

President King Obozo needs a strict interpretation of the Constitution to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. No one in the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches appears to have any idea about what to do. Had the rules been followed, the solution would have been simpler (no guarantee as to the aesthetics is implied here).

Pirates/banditos/guerillas/military forces, whatever, attacking a de facto U.S. Navy vessel have declared war on the United States. The captain of the vessel that was attacked is a de facto naval officer. The attackers, who are holding the officer prisoner, are themselves surrounded and cut off from assistance; they are being ordered to surrender. President King Obozo has two choices : he can try to micromanage the situation alá Lyndon B. Johnson and Viet Nam with the consensus of the United Nations under the guise of there no longer being a War on Terror, or he can restart the War on Terror and turn over the entire situation to the Navy as a combat mission.

Ah, my muse has whispered a third choice. He can vote "present" and delegate the problem to Joe and Hilary.

I Said It Was Coming

I have been telling everyone that although the snow melted and the weather warmed, we always get a snowstorm in April. In fact, it almost always comes in the second week of April.2009

2007

2005

Is this "The One"?

The 11th Chapter of Daniel tells of the King of the South, who seems to be a vain ("his heart shall be lifted up"), irritable person ("moved with choler"). He repeatedly attacks the King of the North, who naturally counterattacks, and, as a result, "... he shall stand in the glorious land, ...".

The King of the South -- the King of Kenya?

Anybody know the Aramaic word for "teleprompter"? Is that a device that allows a person to "speak lies at one table"? Poor Daniel -- he never saw a modern press conference. Or maybe it is us we should feel sorry for?

Ah, well. Read the whole thing. Just remember that its whole purpose is not to provide people with the ability to interpret the future, but for people to look back after everything is finished and say , "Yep, the Eternal said it would happen that way."

Welcome to my Fan Club!

Well, I vanitized my blog by adding the "Followers" gadget. It's under the counter -- yuk, yuk!

Today. Huh!

As noted in the comment to Mickey Axlebender Thirdson, the cloudyhouse got some updates.

Went to old Hilltop High today. It's been 44 years since I first walked onto that campus. Found out that there are three summer sessions, which should allow me to get the 12 semester hours this summer. The 12 hours can be just about anything from the College of Education, or in the Sciences. The TESOL certification program is a 22 hour gig; my 12 hours for recertification could be part of the 22 hours.

Went to Simmons Hall and filed some paperwork to reactivate my student file (hey, it has been 33 years since I last took a course there). It will take a few days to get an ID and password, then I can play with registration.

Looked at the news, briefly, for some comic relief. OBooBoo shook hands with QE2, and gave her an iPod filled with his speeches. He then met with the King of Saudi Arabia, and bowed to that royal highness.

The stock market briefly broke 8,000, then subsided. Whatchwannabet most of the dimbulbs never read more than the headline about the change in accounting rules; the devil is in the details, and when they wake up from this hangover, the market could have the DTs.

Hillarious having apologized to Mexico for 90% of the druggies' guns coming from the US, it turns out that it is 90% of the traceable guns that come from the US; the vast majority of the guns the druggies use come from China, Russia, and the Mexican Army. BATF says Mexico seized 29,000 guns in 2007-2008, that 11,000 were submitted to BATF, and 5,114 were traceable to the US (because they had serial numbers). And, the fully auto versions that the druggies like are not available from the States. Again, just read the headlines, don't worry about the details.

Only 3-1/2 years until we can try to step back through the looking glass, Alice. If it hasn't gone down the rabbit black hole by then.

It's a CLOUDYhouse, Mr. Dirt

I allus wanted a greenhouse. My house is beige. Sort of putty-colored. I'm not allowed to spread dirt on the floors and grow stuff. So I wanted a greenhouse.

I made coldframes in lots of places over lots of time. They just aren't the same. I built a 12' geodesic dome that I was going to cover with plastic, but we moved to Beauval and I left it at my folks' place to rot. I built a mini-greenhouse following the Beltsville plan while we were in Nisku, but it was not even big enough to stand in.

Finally, I decided to keep the dirt out of the house and build a real full-size model of the Beltsville plan. But, problems never cease. Where would I put it? This lot has very little level ground. In fact, the only level ground is probably in the shed floor. When I finally settled on a location that was agreeable to my better half, my project had shrunk from 12' long to 8' long due to the slope of the back hill.

Nevertheless, I set to work. Originally, I figured I could get away with three courses of 2 x 6 treated center-match in the base. Wrong. The slope was just steep enough that I had to increase the base to four courses. The project moved in fits and starts, but now, after about 3 weeks and $200 worth of material, it is done. Well, sort of. Have I ever completely finished a project? Door latches? Hinges on the vent panels?

But, as you can see, it is not a green house. It is a clear house. But not entirely that, either -- sort of a cloudy house. Which is fitting, because when the sun is shining, and I walk inside, my glasses fog up from the moisture. It actually rains (ah, I exaggerate, it drizzles a bit) inside my cloudyhouse.


This afternoon we went to Copley Feed for some seed. I am preferring open-pollinated varieties of everything; Rutgers tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, Calabrese broccoli, stuff like that. We might need to save seed, depending on what our silly Congress regulates next.

When we got back, I seeded a wee bit of Buttercrunch, Black Seeded Simpson, and Romaine lettuce, a row of broccoli and of cabbage, and two rows of onions. I will start soaking the tomatoe seeds and the pepper seeds tonight, for planting tomorrow.

As to other stuff. The Ohio Department of Education says I can reactivate my certificate if I take 12 semester hours, submit to a criminal background check, and pay $200 bucks. I'm planning to go see an academic advisor at UA in the morning. Of course, I have an ulterior motive. Michelle said she would go back to school when I did. Pony up, Miz Horsearound.

Oh, yeah. Since I am a Golden Oldie, I am eligible to audit any course at UA that has room, for free. If I sign up and register, I can use the library and pool and all the other good stuff. Maybe I can audit a few law courses and find out how to file class action suits against politicians.

Mo' Ham, Maude

Seeing as how Saint Padraig's Day has just passed, it being time for a celebration of sorts, tomorrow is the much delayed Ground Hog Party around here. As a good descendent of Celts (just not the Irish kind -- our ancestors probably painted their naked bodies some other color than blue when they went to battle -- oops, sorry, mixed up the Irish with the Picts, sorry...) any day is a good day to party.

So I went to Sam's and got the fixin's. Pork shoulders at $1.18/lb, bone in. Deboned them, weighed the bones, and figured that the deboned meat cost about $1.27/lb. Good deal. Sliced it up, ground it (grinding in 1-1/2 heads of stink-lily [česnak] as I went), added 1/4 cup of salt, a cup of water, a half cup of paprika, and mixed it thoroughly. Behold.I then taste-tested it by frying up a patty for a sandwich... notice that it was ready just in time for lunch.

Of course, there is other stuff to be done. I need to get the plastic cover on the greenhouse and get the tomatoe and pepper seeds started. [That was deliberate, to prove I am not an illiterate MainStream Media Talking Head who thinks that tomatoe has to be spelled tomato. I have a REAL AMERICAN dictionary, one that admits to traditional AMERICAN spellings.]

We pruned the grapes, and I decided to get some cuttings started for all my wee ones to begin their own vinyards...

Ah, Spring is sproinging. Tomorrow's plans are to murder trees at Joonyah's house. Breakfast at 7:30, sez he, and he has been rounding up the ropes and chainsaws and machetes and axes. Then, AFTERWARDS we roast the ground hog.

No Wonder BO Was Elected

   Americans (US Americans, that is) are truly stupid when it comes to analyzing what is going on in the world, but it is not entirely their fault.

   They go to schools where only politically correct history is taught. They go to work in businesses where only politically correct decisions can be made. They come home, and turn on the news, and they get the politically correct version.

   The Official Truth Squads of the government, and their minions in the Mainstream Media, howl that the supposedly "Fair and Balanced" Fox News is actually biased in favor of conservative thinking. And then we get, from Fox, the following :

Bulldozer Goes on Rampage in Israel, Driver Killed

   Drivel. Worse than drivel. Outright disinformation.

"JERUSALEM — A Palestinian driver rammed a construction vehicle into a bus and police car on a highway Thursday, wounding two officers before he was shot dead, police said, the latest in a string of attacks by militants using heavy machinery against Israeli targets.

Witnesses described a harrowing sight of a towering yellow front loader speeding along Jerusalem's Begin Highway, dragging the police car, flipping it into the air and trying to crush it with its front shovel."
..."Deputy police chief Nisso Shachar said the attacker was first spotted by a traffic police car. "The officer saw the bulldozer lift up a police squad car with its shovel after trying to squash it," he said. "It is without a doubt a terror attack."

Schachar said the man was killed and an open copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, was found in the vehicle. He said the presence of the book indicated the attacker was affiliated with or influenced by Islamic radicals. Police said the two wounded officers were lightly hurt.

It was the third bulldozer attack in Jerusalem in the past eight months."

   Rupert Murdoch should fire the idiot who came up with that headline, but he will not, because it is a politically correct headline. Geert Wilders could not have called the shot better; the MSM cowers under its bed in fear that Mohammedans will react badly to any exposé of their true character.

   I think somebody should call the Trial Lawyers' Association so that a suit can be filed against the bulldozer manufacturer, the salespeople who promoted that bulldozer, and the company that bought the bulldozer. Obviously, all of them were negligent in allowing a deranged bulldozer out in public.

   Let me rephrase that earlier sentiment. It is the fault of the American people that they do not bother to go beyond headlines, and hold the terror-stricken publishers accountable. It is simply poor parenting that allows a child to grow up without a healthy dose of skepticism toward outside 'authorities'. And it is criminal negligence for teachers and 'authorities' to present only one side of a picture to those who look at them for guidance, whether it concern history, economics, science, or philosophy.

   My opinion. Choke on it if you don't like it.

Progress

Things are looking up. The bleeding that started on Sunday was stopped by Monday night (but, by my reckoning, I still lost nearly 2 pints of red ink). I am no longer collapsing when I stand up and move about -- in fact, today I have been up and down the steps from the basement to the second floor several times. BP is still quite low, however, at 82/54 this morning.

Time to finish that appraisal report that I was working on before this minor interruption hit.

Mike & Suzi over for supper last night. The pizza smelled SO good, but would not have been quite the same going through the blender. Rotisserie chicken from Wally-World went through the blender real well, though, and with mashed potatoes, was super. Seasoning was just right. The grease from the bottom of the chicken container makes the blended chicken juicier. I figure that chicken + onions + mayo --->blender = would be great chicken salad sandwich material.

Thank You

Jakob : I think the health is a good bit better than 25% now.

Ilona : You are a terrific writer. Your Daddy should let you write some of his blog posts.

Jesslyn : Thank you for the curly hairs. I was never able to grow those myself. I think Grandma needs to make a cherry pie so I can look for my teeth.

Tony : "Grandpa, what did you put on your face?"

Amelia : You really don't have to be afraid of me. I'm still the same inside (well, except for those three teeth).

Colors All Mixed Up

It's improving.

Am I Electable?

I Surrender All ...

...but be careful who you surrender to.

I know, I know. I'm being legalistic. I need to gracefully bend over so we can all live in peace. (Peace only occurs when one side surrenders. Bet they never taught you that in public school.)

Terms of Enslavement: Web Sites' Outrageous Service Agreements

So, in view of the recent attempted censorship of this blog by the Googilligans, I revisited the Blogger TOS. You should do the same.

[n.b. : I am assuming it was the Googilligans that slipped that little piece of hypertext into my post to redirect the page to a null. If they didn't do it, somebody else over-rode security, hacked my blog, and then restored it.



"Although we may attempt to notify you when major changes are made to these Blogger Terms of Service, you should periodically review the most up-to-date version (http://www.blogger.com/terms.g). Google may, in its sole discretion, modify or revise these Terms of Service and policies at any time, and you agree to be bound by such modifications or revisions. If you do not accept and abide by this Agreement, you may not use the Blogger service."

When you do, you will realize that the Google TOS makes the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle look as solid as a rock. The Cheshire Cat could take lessons.

Within the TOS, you read that Google reserves the right to investigate your use of the Service, does not monitor the content of Blogger.com and Blogspot.com [giggle], and reserves the right to remove or refuse to distribute any content. You agree that you will not use any process to monitor or copy any content from the Service. [Ooops. Is that what I am doing by pointing these things out? Technically, can a link to a blog via an RSS feed be construed as monitoring? Lots of hanging rope in this bag, Bodangles.]

Lessee, now. "Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted..." -- what does everything preceding that statement mean? No control? Except investigation, removal, a "... worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, publish, and distribute such Content ..."

And in the Content Policy : "Users may not publish material that promotes hate toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity." "Users may not publish direct threats of violence against any person or group of people."

[Have you ever wondered why the terms "hate" and "violence" are never defined in that type of document? Do definitions limit subjectivity? Ha!!]

Now don't get me wrong. You voluntarily agree to these things when you open a Google account. Nobody forces you to agree. You did agree, didn't you?

Egg on Your Face, Book?

This just in :

Facebook Does About-Face on Privacy Change

As a side note, this blog was hacked after the last post. I have no confirmation (hint / hint : Google could apologize) , but I suspect that some dork was offended by what I posted and flagged it as objectionable, and Google pulled it to check it out. People coming directly to the page saw the title and sidebars, but a blank instead of the post.

I was able to view both, and grabbed the sources. I have a copy of the hypertext used to blank out the page (the feed was redirected to a null). Web censorship at its sneakiest.

Maybe I will switch my blog to Wordpress. I have already changed my Firefox default search engine to Yahoo, and I located the hack that allows changing Safari's default. Apple deserves a raspberry for hardcoding Google as Safari's default search engine.

You can't stop Google. It is everywhere, probably even under your bed. If I can get off my lazy streak, maybe I'll do something to slow down their drive for world domination.

In Your Face, Book.

Qool noos phrum thee eelectronik frunteer:

Facebook Membership May Be Forever

KWOTE

"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof."

In other words, while it doesn't actually own your photos, scribblings and status updates — you do — Facebook can do whatever it wants with it, whenever it wants, in order to promote itself or create or sell ads.

Theoretically, it can even "license" a picture of your kids for use in a third party's ad campaign.

Most of that has been part of the Facebook Terms of Service for a while. After all, without user-generated content, Facebook would be nothing.

What's been removed is this: "If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however (sic) you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

And what's been added is this: "The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service" — after which follows a list of most of the sections on the Terms of Service page.

So even if you decide Facebook isn't for you, the site can still use anything you posted. It's all been archived.

ENDUVKWOTE

So, nauw yoo bee immortle.

Urine for a Treat

Almost pee-ed my pants reading this one. I can see PETA pushing this for inclusion in the Economic Stimulus Plan, as a Green Alternative. What would really be hillary-ous would be to see BO, Miss Nancy, and Mr. Harry drinking this at a press conference, with Algore speaking in the background about the ocean levels rising.

Go green. I may have to go buy some Depends.

India to launch cow urine as soft drink

Solar is Stupid. Let's Go Solar!!

Weather Underground has a neat calculator located at : Solar Calculator . You simply put in your home address, and it will calculate the solar insolation using data from the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. For us, the raw data shows solar insolation at about 4 kilowatt hours per square meter per day as shown here :

It will also calculate the return on a solar panel. If we had a 1' x 1' solar panel with an efficiency of 15%, we could get about $3 worth of electricity per year from the sun.

Harbor Freight sells a 45 watt ( @ 3000 mA, peak 23.57 V) solar panel kit ( 3 - 12.4" x 36.42" panels each rated at 15 watts) for $199.99 ($212.99 with OHSTax). That is (37.2 x 36.42) 9.4085 square feet (gross). The highest rated panel on the on-line list is 18%, so assuming that the Chinese-made Chicago Electric panels can hit 15% ( and being well aware that some of the panels on the list are rated at only 6%), we get the following:

Shazzam!! $32 bucks worth of juice at 0.12 per Kwhr. That is pretty close to my actual net charge of 0.1216 for December 2008. I could set up that unit and in just over 6 and half years I could be getting free electricity!! Wheeeee!! Of course, that does not include the cost of the required storage batteries (about $50 each) and inverter. Also, it is going to require quite a few of these buggers (more than 20) to pull out 1000Kwhr (typical usage in December, more in January and February) per month.

They also have a 75 watt 12 volt panel (47' x 21.5", 7.017 square feet) for only $499.99 ($532.49 with tax). That would also need storage batteries and an inverter.


The calculator shows the 75 watt unit putting out about $24 worth of electricity per year at 0.12/Kwhr. That did not seem like I was comparing apples to apples, so I went looking for the rating systems, and I am having trouble finding them. On the other hand, I did find a site Solar Panels Reviewed... which rated the Sanyo 190 watt ($1195) as most efficient (17.4%), the Evergreen Solar unit ($1079) that was considered the "greenest", and the Kyocera 190 watt ($1085) rated as the best deal (15% efficiency). Since the Kyocera KD-205GX-LP (59.1" x 39", 205 W @ 26.6V and 7.71 A, 14% efficiency, $899 at www.affordable-solar.com) is listed on the calculator, I plugged that one in for this result :

So as I think about it, the buzz about solar is really just a bunch of nonsense. How big is the power plant for an aircraft carrier? For a real kick, look at the Hyperion Power Modules : Hyperion Power Generation. "Each HPM provides 70 MW thermal energy or 25 MW electric energy via steam turbine for seven to ten years. This amount of energy provides electricity for 20,000 average American-style homes or the industrial or infrastructure equivalent. Each module will cost $25 to $30 million."
I took out the calculator again. Assuming a 7 year life, for 20,000 homes that is just under $215/home. Assuming a 5 year life (time between refueling, assuming the reactor would need to be replaced, when in fact it should simply need refueling), it would cost about $300/home. No batteries, no power inverter, and that is the cost per home, not per solar cell.

Hyperion Fast Facts

• Small -1.5 meters across, approx size of a residential “hot tub”
  
• Produces 70 MWt or 25 MWe, enough to power 20,000 average American homes or the equivalent
  
• Buried underground out of sight and harm’s way
  
• Transportable by train, ship, truck
  
• Sealed module, never opened on site
  
• Enough power for 5+ years
  
• After 5 years, removed & refueled at original factory
  
• Uniquely safe, self-moderating using a natural chemical reaction discovered 50 years ago
  
• No mechanical parts in the core to malfunction
  
• Water not used as coolant; cannot go “supercritical” or get too hot
  
• No greenhouse gases or global warming emissions
  
• Think: Large Battery!

Solar is stupid. Think nuclear. (Nucular in some parts of the country.)

Peek-a-boo

Figgered I'd mosey on down to the hit counter and see what was going down (the language has changed since Bugs said,"What's up, Doc?"). Took a screen shot of the graph that Bravenet set up :


This is also interesting; it shows the data since the counter was last reset:

The Vorpal Blade Carves Borogoves

So, asketh you, what brought on that last little twitch by the See-er of Bad Guys Behind Every Tree?? ***ACRONYM CONTEST!!! Make an acronym out of that last one!! Here's a starter : SeBGuBET. (SBGBET in Lower Slobovian). Prize is a free kick in the pants. ***

Dear Brother Outlaw John Hunyadi set up a family tree on GENI. GENI is a genealogy web site -- a social networking site -- which allows people to search for their relatives. The person who sets the tree up can add a person in their (extended) family and then "invite" that person to "join" GENI, at which point the invitee can add other people and edit his own portion of the family tree.




It is actually a very neat sort of thing. The intent of the founders of GENI was to provide a world-wide family tree of everyone in the world. Theoretically, it would test the idea that everyone in the world has a common ancestor roughly eight generations back.






I would love to load that tree with the data that I have, but there is the small matter of my latent paranoia.

This is an excerpt from the GENI Privacy Policy (my bolds):

"XI. Privacy. We care about the privacy of our users. Click here to view our Privacy Policy. By using the Service, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States.

XII. Security. Geni is intended to be a private family network. We have implemented commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. You acknowledge that you provide your personal information at your own risk."

A bit of deeper digging uncovers a warning that once the data is accessed from a point outside the USofA, the GENI member should be aware that foreign users may be governed by different laws. The user's privacy might not be quite as respected in China as in the USofA, if you follow my line of thought.

There is also the following to be found on the GENI site (again, my bolds):
Safety Tips for Parents
Parents should review the following guidelines carefully.

• Members of the Geni.com website must be at least 13 years old. Geni.com will terminate the membership of users whom we discover are younger than 13. Members must not misrepresent their age or the ages of others on the website. If your child is under 13 and through misrepresentation has created a profile on the website, please click here to notify us so that we can remove it immediately.
  
  
• The names of children under the age of 13 may be added to a family tree on the Geni.com website for the limited purpose of establishing a family tree placeholder for such child. Such children are not invited to join Geni.com as members and are not allowed to submit any personal information to the website.
  
  
• It is important that you talk to your teenage children about how they use Geni.com and how they represent themselves on Geni.com. Although only the people in your teenager's family tree plus invited friends can see your teenager's profile, family trees may extend to people they do not know well or at all. Tell your teenager not to post anything that could enable unwanted individuals with access to their profile to find them, that could otherwise expose them to danger or that could embarrass them. Review your teenager's account settings with them to help them choose the appropriate restrictions.
  
  
• Harassment, hate speech and other inappropriate content is not permitted on the Geni.com website and should be reported. If your teenager encounters inappropriate behavior on the website, let your teenager know that they should let you know, or that they should report it to Geni.com or the authorities as soon as possible.

Now then, let's digest this a bit. Say that I set up a family tree and begin inviting other family members to join and add more information. Within a short time, the tree will indeed become part of a forest. The kind of information I add varies widely, and the intent of the founders is to join together everyone in the human family. Ultimately, if I am related to Mr. Cau Flung Pu in the Far East or Ms. Rumblin Mbele in the Far South, we will be able to share our family information. Who knows, maybe we have the same great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather who went on a Crusade, was captured by the Mohammedans, sold as a slave to an African warlord, and ended up as a mercenary in the army of the Celestial Emperor, leaving a legacy at every port of call. Fascinating, eh wot?

So what kind of information is on this tree? Anything you can think of. Where you were born, what your grandparents' names were, your favorite pet, color, food, etc. In short, you can make your life an open book. Just like blogging, which is a fine outlet for those who are exhibitionists.

Think a minute. Have you done any on-line banking? Paid any bills on-line? Accessed any service that requires answers to security questions? What kind of information is asked for in those security questions? The city you were born in? Your grandmother's maiden name? Your first pet? Your favorite color? Tell me now -- does this post make you think about leaks in the information chain?

Ah, you say, the information on GENI is private. Outside visitors are limited in what they can see. You are correct, my friend. There is, however, the Judas problem. What if there is a black sheep in the family, or an old goat? (Hey!!! Wipe that smirk off your face!!!) If you have ever had a brother or sister "borrow" from your piggy bank, can you imagine trying to control the activity of a 5th cousin 3 times removed, especially if he is running a 419 program? (If you don't know what that is, you are indeed greener than grass and should have your email license revoked.)

All in all, I think the GENI idea is a lot of fun, and could be very useful (even if it could be TOO useful to certain people). Here are my recommendations for internet security, going forward:

• Create a password list for all sites that you visit which require passwords for access. The passwords should be as random and senseless as possible, mixing upper case and lower case letters with numerals and, where permitted or required, punctuation characters. My solution involves setting up a spreadsheet with the site, my username, the password, and security question answers.
  
  
• Print out the password list, and burn the password list file to a CD. Then delete the password list file from your computer, and keep the printed list and the backup CD in a safe place, away from prying eyes.
  
  
• Revisit all those on-line bank and credit card sites and change the security question answers. It doesn't matter what is posted on GENI if the security answer to the question about your grandmother's maiden name is "superman" and your first pet was named "godzilla". Be creative, and, as noted above, be sure you record that in your password list. Remember that YOU may not have put the real information on-line, but somebody else in your family might have. Assume that an identity thief already has access to your deepest family secrets.
  
  
• Don't forget your email account and other internet access password(s) while doing this.
  
  
• Password protect every computer on your local network. If someone linked to your home router is downloading files using a peer-to-peer network, and other computers on your local network are not password protected, those other computers are wide open to the world-wide users of the peer-to-peer network.
  
  
• Password protect your home router. Especially, password protect your wireless network. We have several neighbors who have wide open wireless systems. If someone wanted, they could have free internet access using those networks. Now and again, you read about someone being arrested for "stealing" wireless bandwidth, usually by parking their car near an open network and using it. Anybody looking for an easy hack into system files (and maybe bank accounts) knows that a person who leaves a wireless network wide open probably also left a few other doors ajar, and it is worth their time and effort to check such things out.

I realize that this flies in the face of much of what you may have been told about not writing down passwords. That advice was generated in simpler times, when you were also told to use a password that was easy to remember. These are more modern times, and you need passwords that are IMPOSSIBLE to remember, and you need to change those passwords on a regular schedule. Keep in mind that the movie actor hacker who gets into a file by trying to guess the password is obsolete; the modern hacker uses special programs that may run thousands of password combinations per minute. Few of them are that dangerous; the typical password thief will give up and go after an easier target if he can't get yours after a few hundred tries.

So. Now that you are truly afraid, Happy Internetting!

A Terrible Two-Edged Sword

Would you be in favor of giving a loaded shotgun to a toddler? Certainly he could figure out how to pull the trigger. Just as certainly, he would have no understanding of the consequences. This post begins a series (I hope) that deals with the danger of handing internet access to people who do not understand the consequences of going on-line.

Once upon a time there were people who exchanged information over the back fence. They spoke face-to-face. If one of them made an utterance, and the other repeated it to a third party, the original utterer could claim plausible deniability in that the repeater could have made some change to the information in the transfer. In any event, the passage of the information, in either its true form or as mutated, was slow. Nevertheless, the saying, "The cat is out of the bag," reflected the fact that once someone said something, it could never be rescinded. At least the cat had to jump from person to person in small leaps.

The telephone made a huge impact on information transmission. Not too many people remember the party line. In the United States, it gradually faded away during my teen years, but most modern teenagers would be horrified to learn that, in those days, anything you told your friend over the telephone could possibly be heard by the neighbor listening in. Teens back then were a bit more circumspect in what they said on the phone, because Dad and Mom just might be informed by Nosy Neighbor. Private lines, and laws governing wiretapping and recording, gave people a sense of privacy.

In the analog age, that sense of privacy had some basis, since the ability to store information was physically limited. You could write stuff on paper, you could record it on tape, but you still had to have a large library to store it in and a means of cataloguing it to make it of any use.

Times have changed. We live in a digital age. Terabyte sized storage is cheap and common; even larger media is available and larger yet is being designed. I have referred in a previous post to the fact that every email that I have ever sent (and I was on-line via Delphi and the FreeNets over 20 years ago, when most people had no idea what I was talking about when I said "email") is stored on a server somewhere. The internet has become an accepted facet of modern life, but familiarity, while not necessarily breeding contempt, does tend to breed carelessness.

When you log into an email system, or go online with a web browser, the mechanics of the system are hidden from the user. The internet began as a means of sharing UNIX files over closed server systems. Today, the systems are open ("world wide web") and cosmetically enhanced ("user-friendly graphic interface", "web browser") but the underlying mechanism is unchanged except for the size of the data "words" (ah, for the days when we hackers dreamed of being able to expand from 8-bit to 16-bit "words"; the 64-bit "word" is here and we await machines that will handle the 128-bit word!!). And, as noted above, the storage is no longer in the realm of Kilobytes, Megabytes, or Gigabytes, but Terabytes, and Google is said to be handling over 20 Petabytes (10 to the 15th) of data per day. It is all being stored, and Google has plans for its future use. Exabyte and Yottabyte (10 to the 18th and 10 to the 24th) will become as common in the not-too-distant future as GB. Unfortunately, the people logging into their internet accounts are as clueless as people unknowingly using a party line.

Do you use a cell phone? The message packets are digital, they pass through servers (although not necessarily on the internet, per se), and any intelligence agency that can access the carrier's records can obtain a complete copy of your conversation.

Do you use instant messaging? Or texting? Or internet phone service? All of those are transmitted across the internet in file packets, bounced from node to node and from server to server, and stored in memory somewhere. If a cell phone conversation passes through one of those nodes, it also goes out of the sole control of the carrier.

Do you use an analog land-line to call someone who uses a cell phone or internet phone service? Did you know that your conversation has also been recorded and saved? Do you know which servers it passed through? Did it get bounced through India, China, South Africa, or Europe, on the way from Akron to Cleveland? Did you even know that such a thing was possible? Are you in the same kind of situation as the toddler with the loaded shotgun?

So, now, what did you talk about in your last phone conversation? What did you send in your last email? What did you post on your blog? What did you upload to Facebook? Did you really intend for the whole wide world to be able to see that? Would you have discussed your very private life details over a party line with a dozen other neighbors able to listen in?

Lord willing, I intend to expand on this in future posts. I have had some previous problems with identity theft, I have had a very recent refusal by a bank holding company to buy!!! stock on-line because they had me confused with someone else via public records (in that case the State BMV!!), and I have some serious concerns about the privacy of data submitted to large information companies by people who obviously do not understand how that data will be used in the future.

If you think I am paranoid -- wait until I get done with YOU.