It's Seems Such a Simple Concept But...

Can we talk about courage? The definition seems to have changed over the years. When I was young, it meant facing immediate danger to life or limb but pushing through anyway. The important thing was realizing the danger existed. Bravery under fire, we called it. The stuff of heroes.

Today, the word has lost its power for me. I write this because I just read where "Gabby" Giffords was awarded a "Profile in Courage" award.

The article says:
The award, handed out annually by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, is given to someone who demonstrated courage “without regard for the personal or professional consequences.”

Isn't Ms Giffords a Democrat? And a liberal?

So what did she risk in terms of personal or professional consequences? Perhaps it is for her courage in facing a long uphill rehabilitation regime? But that isn't what the article says it's for. It says it's for recommitting herself "to fighting for a more peaceful society free from hate and violence." 

Had she stopped doing that for some reason? 


Now, if she had started campaigning for lower taxes and more spending cuts... that would have been courageous on her part.

We talk about the courage of small children facing cancer. They aren't courageous, they have no choice but to face it and do what the doctors and his or her parents say to do. It's not like a sick child can run away.

Courage is, to me, more than just being put in a tough situation. It's seeking out that tough situation or it's going beyond just facing it. It's running into that burning building to save a child, an adult, or even just a pet. It's going toward the sound of gunfire.

It's not simply surviving.

Sorry, just my opinion.

(Mis)adventures in Computing

When we left on our trip, everything was almost fine. Except that the first contact we had with Frannie revealed her monitor had "died." No big deal, it had lived a long and useful life. It was the last surviving part of a system we had received as a gift over 7 years ago. I had replaced the motherboard and case, as well as the keyboard, some years back. Frannie had replaced the printer less than a year ago. She didn't actually need a printer as there was a networked printer available but she wanted one.

In any event, I spent the better part of three hours Saturday straightening out her computer after connecting the new monitor I had ordered online. The monitor had arrived in a timely fashion (4 days) and, in spite of the normally harsh treatment by the combination of UPS and the USPS, was in perfect shape... including the carton it came in. All the parts were there, too. I am impressed by this for some odd reason.

The problems I had to straighten out did not involve the monitor... which installed just fine. No, it was AVG Free (version 2013) which caused me much heartburn and Internet Explorer. Normally, I find AVG Free to be a superior product but something about the latest version has irritated me. I had attempted to update to that version on Frannie's computer just before I left but it didn't take. This happened on my own machine and it took a bit of work to get it completely cleaned out and re-installed properly. With Frannie's machine, I had to locate, download, and run a utility to remove the failed installation. Once that was done, a new installation of the program went fine... with two exceptions.

Somehow, I added two other programs without realizing it. These were "junk" programs that piggyback on the installation of a program you want. So, they had to be uninstalled. Upon uninstalling these, the program takes you to their websites and asks you why you  uninstalled each. You do not want to know what I told them beyond expressing my displeasure with programs that piggyback on installations and suck up resources.

The other little problem was the misbehavior of Internet Explorer 10. It seems that, regardless of how you exit that  program, it pops up a little dialog box which says that "Internet Explorer has stopped working." Of course it did! I exited the program, it's supposed to stop working. So, I installed Firefox and (after much investigation on how to do it) and uninstalled Internet Explorer.

The little eMachine now runs smoothly (though it could use more memory) again. Until the next time.

What's in a Name?

Every so often, I am reminded why I am so fortunate to live in the United States of America.  As I perused the headlines yesterday, I came across this item.

To make a long story short, read this:

In New Zealand, parents have to run by the government any name they want to bestow on their baby.

Among the names proscribed on a list published each year are:

Lucifer
Christ
Messiah

I will grant that these names are not run of the mill and unlikely to be requested by prospective parents. And I am sure the New Zealand government has nothing but good intentions in requiring all baby names to be approved by them. After all, some people might unknowingly (or knowingly) inflict great psychic pain by giving their child some seemingly innocuous name. Like "Ima" if the last name is "Hogg." That's an old joke, an urban myth, if you will. I am sure none of you would do such a thing.

Still, I knew a Sandy Glenn. And a couple of Herberts... but no "Lucifer."
 

Mixed Messages

So, yesterday morning, I am looking at the headlines as Google News presents them and I see this series of headlines:
   
DETROIT | Thu May 2, 2013 7:39am EDT. DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as its North American business was better and its loss in Europe was smaller than Wall Street estimated.
GM earnings fall 11% on Europe losses - USA TodayUSA TODAY
GM net income falls 14 pct to $865 million in 1Q Boston.com
See realtime coverage »

If I just read headlines, I would be confused... Did GM do well? Or poorly? Could GM's earnings be strong and still fall 14%?

I suppose the Wizards of Wall Street can make sense of this. Of course, reading the story from Reuters, I come to realize that, even though it faltered, GM beat the rather dismal expectations of someone, or some ones (never named), on "Wall Street".

And, I read this phrase/sentence:

Excluding one-time items, GM earned 67 cents, topping the analysts' estimate of 54 cents, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue fell 2.4 percent from last year to $36.9 billion, and was just above the Wall Street target of $36.6 billion.

It's no wonder so many people rely on "experts" for investment advice. And it's no wonder why I do not.

A Journey Ends... Safely

We're back! Yes, it was a month long journey from the east to the west and back again. A couple of days in Biloxi, a one day visit to Faye's brother in Arizona, a few days in Las Vegas, and then a jaunt down to San Diego. My golf addiction, sadly, was not catered to on this trip. I only managed 27 holes in the entire month. Mostly due to bad weather but family activities and my illness interfered also.

On the way back, we ran through some bad weather also. We got through Houston just ahead of the flooding and hailstones. The rain slowed us down some but we were luckier than a couple of vehicles. One, a semi, jack-knifed a couple of hours ahead of us and a car managed to swerve off the road into the median and slammed into a tree not more than an hour or so ahead of us as we crossed into Mississippi.

I noticed something along the trip, truckers are not as polite as they once were. It used to be that truckers (big rig types) were some of the most courteous drivers on the interstates. But now, while there are still many courteous ones, the number of rude ones seems way up. But, I am happy to say, they are driving slower of late.  Instead of 5 MPH over the limit, they are driving at 5 MPH under. Unfortunately, more than a few tried to pass another semi on the upslope of a hill.

Patience in those situations is paramount.

But we are back, safe and sound and life is sweet when you get to sleep in your own bed.