It’s amazing how something that can be relatively unimportant can suddenly be elevated to my “must have” list. Is that greed or what?

I recently upgraded my home PC. The former CPU served me longer than any computer to date, almost 7½ years! Talk about slow! It was painfully slow at the end. But the old thing was like a Volkswagen Bug, indestructible. I digress.

Now that I have a computer that is acceptably fast, I have the processing power to work with video editing. For years I have wanted to do several projects with home movies, but it was hampered by my patience on the slow machine – not to mention no way to burn the DVD. Finally I arrive at my topic. Since I have been working on these home movies I have noticed a few slowdowns and awkward software.

Today I was very tempted to double my RAM and purchase the upgrade for the DVD editing software I am using. I was so very close to making the purchase. But I don’t really need it. Sure it would be nice, but I don’t really have the discretionary funds right now. ‘Round and ’round I went. Reminding myself that what I had worked quite well; reminding myself that what I had could be better.

When it all comes down to it sure sounds like greed to me.

I’m curious, does anyone else see this in themselves? I have a very difficult time creating something new. I don’t care whether it’s naming a pet, designing procedures for a new process at work, or teaching something I have never taught before.

I find that I am VERY good at modifying an idea to make it better. I enjoying taking time and seeing what does not work and why then wrestling to ways to make it better. It is very easy for me to see what is wrong – much to the chagrin of my wife. I actually enjoy seeing what’s wrong and thinking of ways to make it better. At times I have called myself a pessimistic optimist. I don’t see the world as rosy – I see all the things wrong with it. But that does not depress me because I never stop there. I see the glass half empty but it’s like I’m at the bottom looking up and seeing that it can be filled.

Don’t ask me to make the glass or think of filling it with water, just show the the glass with water in it and I’ll show you how to make it better. So what about it? Anyone else think like this or an I just plan weird?

Sleeplessness comes in many forms and causes. A few causes that I can rattle off the top of my head are:

• After an emotionally extreme moment (good or bad)
• Sickness
• Not processing some of the days events until the quiet of pillow time
• Aching body parts
• Anticipation
• The party across the street
• A spouse ’sawing logs’
• The just-plain-can’t-figure-it-out times

I am the type that usually goes to sleep within minutes of my head hitting the pillow. I don’t sleep as soundly as I used to but I generally fall to sleep easily. In the last year there have been major stresses in my life, so it is understandable that I would find several of the items in the list above as the culprit as various times. But what do I do with the last one on a night like last night? I was tired from a rough sleep the night before, then it comes to last night and I had no pressing cause (that I could determine) for the sleeplessness. This is indeed odd for me. Especially because for most of my life this had been a rare occurrence, at least until recently.

The good news is that with satellite TV I have an abundance of infomercial choices at 2:30am.

Regardless of how your meal compares with an “authentic” Thanksgiving (as that seems to be the trend these days), take a moment and reflect on what you have. Just the fact that you are reading this shows that you have more than most of those on this big globe. If you have Internet access you are in a region that at least has electricity. You are likely sitting in a chair.; Likely indoors; Likely in an industrialiazed nation.

I know that Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Whereever you what, whatever plans you have after you read this, take a few minutes to rflect on what you do have and why you have it. Give thanks!

When sharing the matters of the heart with someone, is there such a thing as too deep? I’m not referring to situations where risk of hurt and disappointment are involved, but instead to a relationship that is healthy and safe. Is there, or can there be times when you should not “go there?”

Obviously there are situations that should not exist in the first place. For example:
Situations where a married person is sharing deep emotional information with someone of the opposite sex.

Situations where sharing the hurts we have from a person who is also close to the person we are sharing with.

These can be considered danger flags either for our own relationships or in destroying the relationships of other parties. Prudence dictates that we need to be alert to such situations.

But what about when neither of the above apply and we have “safety”? Could sharing the deep thoughts & motives be bad?

• Sargo Class Submarine
• Keel laid: September 7, 1937, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, NH
• Launched: July 27, 1938
• Commissioned: July 16, 1939
• Displacement: 1,450 tons surfaced; 2,350 tons submerged
• Length: 310′
• Beam: 27′ 1″
• Operating depth: 250′
• Complement: 5 officers, 50 enlisted
• Armament: eight 21″ torpedo tubes, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 caliber machine guns, two .30 caliber machine guns

On 16 November, she arrived on station and made radar contact with a large, high-speed convoy on the night of the 18th. Making a fast end run on the surface to attack on the morning of the 19th, she was in firing position but was forced to dive when the convoy and its escorts zagged toward her. When the Japanese task force changed course, SCULPIN surfaced to make another run, but was discovered by a rear guard destroyer only 600 yards away. Crash diving, the submarine escaped the first salvo of depth charges. A second string of “ash cans” knocked out her depth gauge and caused other minor damage.

She evaded the destroyer in a rain squall and attempted to come to periscope depth. The damaged depth gauge stuck at 125 feet, so the submarine broached and was again detected. She immediately submerged and the destroyer attacked with a pattern of 18 depth charges. There was considerable damage, including temporary loss of depth control. As a result, SCULPIN ran beyond safe depth so that many leaks developed in the hull. So much water entered that the submarine was forced to run at high speed to maintain depth.

This made tracking easy for the Japanese sonar. A second depth charge attack knocked out SCULPIN’s sonar, leaving her blind. The submarine’s commanding officer, Comdr. Fred Connaway, decided to surface and give the crew of the doomed vessel a chance for survival. With her decks still awash, SCULPIN’s gunners manned the deck guns but were no match for the destroyer’s main battery. A shell hit the conning tower and killed the bridge watch team, including Comdr. Connaway, and flying fragments killed the gun crew.

The senior ship’s officer surviving ordered the submarine to be scuttled. Before he opened the vents, he informed Capt. Cromwell. The captain possessed vital information concerning the forthcoming assault on the Gilbert Islands and subsequent operations. Fearing he might reveal these plans under the influence of torture or drugs, he refused to leave the stricken submarine giving his life to escape capture. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his act of heroism and devotion to country.

Forty-two of SCULPIN’s crew were picked up by the destroyer YAMAGUMO. One badly wounded sailor was thrown back in the sea because of his condition. The survivors were questioned for about ten days at the Japanese naval base at Truk, then were embarked on two aircraft carriers returning to Japan. The escort carrier CHUYO carried 21 of the survivors in her hold. On 2 December, the carrier was torpedoed and sunk by submarine SAILFISH (SS-192) and twenty of the American prisoners perished. One man was saved when he was able to grab hold of a ladder on the side of a passing Japanese destroyer and hauled himself on board. The other 21 survivors arrived at Ofuna, Japan, on 5 December, and, after further questioning, were sent to the Ashio copper mines for the duration of the war.

Naval Historical Center

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Mike Smolinski.

We are all hurt or disappointed by others. Sometimes we’re attacked outright. What do we ALL do over time? Put another brick in the wall to our inner self. It starts in childhood and continues throughout our lives. Some of us have built a wall so high and thick that no one can possibly get in. Safety! No you can’t hurt me! We do this to protect ourselves. Yet when it comes down to it what do we crave most? We really crave a close relationship. Somebody(ies) we can trust. Somebody who cares. When we think we have found that person we let some of the wall down. But do we ever take it all down?

No. That would make us vulnerable. That would make us like a newborn babe, and we’re too smart to allow some hurts to EVER touch us there again. So this wall protects us, it serves it purpose. Serves it all too well I might add. That same brick that won’t allow me to get harmed won’t allow part of me out. It won’t let another see who I am. I prevents me from being rejected and attacked but also prevents me from being loved for who I am. This is the dilemma.

I propose that the wall needs to come down, not conditionally, but unconditionally.

But the problem is that once it’s down I’m open to hurts, pains and disappointments. The first thing I’ll do when that happens is to put it back up. The cycle repeats. I’d like to make a bold statement: “you need me and I need you”. When that wall comes down, I need a true friend(s) that I can share the hurt with so that I don’t put the wall back up. In short I need Community.

Wouldn’t the world be a better place without all those walls?

• Gato Class Submarine
• Keel laid: September 21, 1942, at the Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT
• Launched: May 9, 1943
• Commissioned: August 6, 1943
• Displacement: 1,526 tons surfaced; 2,424 tons submerged
• Length: 311′ 9″
• Beam: 27′ 3″
• Operating depth: 300′
• Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
• Armament: ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine guns

Venturing into enemy waters for her first time, CORVINA (Cmdr. R.S. Rooney) departed from Pearl Harbor on November 4, 1943. After topping off with fuel at Johnston Island she proceeded to an area south of Truk, there to attack enemy naval forces during our surface operations in the Gilbert Islands. She was to patrol as close to Truk as enemy antisubmarine measures would permit.

After operations, transmissions were repeatedly sent, but were not fruitful. Since she had not appeared or been heard from since her departure from Johnston Island on 6 November, CORVINA was reported as presumed lost on 23 December 1943.

Enemy records indicate that CORVINA met her doom on 16 November 1943, by enemy action. An enemy submarine reported having sighted a surfaced submarine and torpedoed her. Three torpedoes were fired and two were reported to have hit, causing “a great explosion sound.”

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Mike Smolinski.

OK, I’ve been sitting on this for a couple of days now… I agree with USA Today that this article is newsworthy but likely for different reasons than that for which it was published.

Burritos differ from sandwiches, judge says
[...]
The difference, the judge ruled, comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla. “A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans.”
[...]
USA Today online article posted 11/10/2006 3:49 PM

Maybe I’m out of line, but on the surface doesn’t this strike you as one of those cases that clog up the judicial system? I know there are contracts that need to be interpreted, but isn’t the definition of “sandwich” kind of common sense?

I propose that when cases like this are forced to be litigated in court that the case be required to be reviewed in public hearing to determine if it should have been settled out of court. If so, the party(ies) that the public deems responsible should pay all court costs, including salaries off ALL public officials involved, administration costs and rental time for the court room. Silly things like, is this a sandwich or not, don’t belong in an overloaded courtroom when defendants are guaranteed a “fair and speedy” trial.

Friendships can run deep, although they normally run shallow. Why is that? I can think of a few reasons: ME is more important that YOU; to invest in you means that I have to give up something; it’s too draining; if I invest in you, you might learn something about me that is ugly – and I’d rather you not know that; work, family, is placing too many demands on me and I just do not have the time.

This list could probably be quite lengthy. I’m sure there are countless reasons why we generally prefer a shallow relationship to a deep one. For me, I’ve typically taken it a step further in life. I’ve taken the why-bother-with-shallow-relationships-at-all approach. Instead of opting for the effort that shallow requires I have historically just skipped it. Lately I have re-evaluated a few things and I think there just might be a place for shallow – possibly on the way to a future deep when I do have the time and energy to invest.

People are what life is about, they are the things that count when it’s all said and done. My pragmatic approach, although efficient, does not allow for watering the seed until I have the time and energy to invest in cultivation. True I cannot go deep with everyone that crosses my path, but I can plant seeds along the way.