tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91750742009-09-30T07:56:40.978-07:00Just thinking out loud....MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.comBlogger151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-84291356489491824172009-08-04T12:33:00.000-07:002009-08-04T12:39:28.820-07:00

I love this:If I come right down to it, the reason why I'm not productive (in the "task finishing" sense) is that I prefer conversing with people about their interests over working in isolation. As a freelancer, this is a real problem. The way I push through is by constructing scenarios in which I'm drawing conclusions from the work that can later be turned into a new product, blog post, or

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-36838018814872667142009-07-16T08:46:00.000-07:002009-07-16T08:47:34.263-07:00

Forty years ago today this nation launched a rocket that sent a man to the freakin' moon! That's the country I want to live in again. We sent a few more guys, and kept it up for about 3½ years. But then we quit, and we haven't accomplished anything that remotely compares since.Great photos from the moonshot at The Big Picture.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-72340868124388281522009-04-16T14:17:00.000-07:002009-04-16T14:18:25.703-07:00

Obama Unveils High-Speed Rail Plan - NYTimes.com: "Obama Unveils High-Speed Rail Plan"Bill Holloway would have loved this. The plan includes a Texas-Oklahoma stretch.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-88870099865643341862009-03-06T07:29:00.000-08:002009-03-06T07:35:24.649-08:00

Not to reopen old controversies, but if Dubya can get hustled into the White House on the most dubious Supreme Court decision since Dred Scott, why is it March and Al Franken still can't take his Senate seat?

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-79347845042821107002009-02-04T16:26:00.000-08:002009-02-04T16:26:23.454-08:00

Someone had to do it: Leigh Caldwell makes the case for a stimulus package for bloggers.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-48195940698614909302009-01-29T11:23:00.000-08:002009-01-29T11:23:55.412-08:00

Today I discovered John Chandler's Creativityist blog and quickly added it to my Google Reader subscriptions. The whole field of "life hacks" and "productivity tricks" has taken some abuse of late, even from the great Merlin Mann, who practically invented the genre. No one else seems to be writing much about nifty information and task management software and the cleverest ways to use them any

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-23916227753337519302009-01-23T08:35:00.000-08:002009-01-23T08:35:51.269-08:00

The more time I spend in the post-Bush era, the better I like it. Congratulations Nashville!

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-49549157958777600752008-07-13T00:28:00.000-07:002008-07-13T00:28:49.375-07:00

I notice that ZPA Nová Paka, a.s., purveyor of fine meters and control systems, lists Slovenakia (scroll down) as an "export territory". I wonder what currency they bill their Slovenak customers in.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-11856126877461737622008-07-07T05:52:00.000-07:002008-07-07T05:55:07.103-07:00

Bought a little one-cup coffee maker today and I'm now sipping my first cup of coffee from it. One by one you acquire these little assets that make life more livable. I should have done this weeks ago, but I still think it will pay for itself before I leave Europe.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-84530954442178018592008-07-07T02:46:00.000-07:002008-07-07T02:47:16.331-07:00

Steve Kaufmann at PickTheBrain has a post demolishing "5 Poor Excuses For Not Learning a Foreign Language". There are more than just a few countries where practically everyone knows two or more languages. In the United States, outside the Latino community, it's unusual to know even one foreign language. How many life-enriching (not to mention pocketbook-enriching) opportunities are we passing up

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-78787912475978916542008-06-24T12:46:00.000-07:002008-06-24T12:51:44.997-07:00

Rügen is a Baltic Sea island belonging to Germany that I visited last Saturday.JaromarsburgSite of the last major Slavic pagan temple. The ridge behind the tower is all that remains of the temple fortifications. Wikipedia has more on the Rujani, the Slavic inhabitants of Rügen from the 7th to the 13th century.SvantovitA modern interpretation of the four-faced Slavic deity Svantovit.View of the

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-53694496825649782612008-06-24T06:17:00.000-07:002008-06-24T06:21:37.738-07:00

ReichstagThe Reichstag, home of the German parliament.S-BahnThe S-Bahn (commuter rail) station near my hotel.Soviet tankA tank at the Soviet war memorial. I can still remember when the memorial was guarded by a bunch of not-to-be-messed-with Soviet troops. Back then this guy would have ended up skewered on a bayonet.HauptbahnhofInside the main passenger rail terminal. This building fascinates me,

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-43241914458452718032008-06-20T12:53:00.000-07:002008-06-20T13:00:36.219-07:00

FamilyA few photos from our stay with my wife's family. My daughter Valerie is on the front left; my wife Tanja is in the back in front of the little white truck. The rest are Tanja's parents and brother and his family.From caveThe view from the mouth of a large cave in the Serbian mountains.View from ZlatiborView from a stop on the Šargan Eight narrow-guage railway on the mountain Zlatibor.More

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-62924113297025674742008-06-02T03:16:00.000-07:002008-06-02T03:19:39.617-07:00

Yesterday I spent more time searching for wifi hotspots than anything else. Hotspot, by the way, is accurate in more ways than one -- we're in the middle of a heat wave, practically nothing is air-conditioned, and the signal is usually not strong enough to sit outside.The upshot is that I haven't been able to find anything near my "hotel" (more on that below) except one slightly pricey restaurant

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-34039056424674657492008-06-01T10:30:00.001-07:002008-06-01T10:44:35.697-07:00

TouristsA few photos from our recent visit to London. Here's my wife Tanja and daughter Valerie taking pictures at the Tower.TowerBridgeThe Tower Bridge.CrepisteA young lady making crepes at a booth near Parliament.We mostly did the tourist thing in London. More later on Prague and Berlin -- I seem to be spending most of my time here searching for WiFi hotspots....More London photos here.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-45418732751425149372008-04-14T10:10:00.000-07:002008-04-14T10:21:14.362-07:00

Paul Miller, former president of the American League of Lobbyists, tells the Austin American-Statesman what his ilk really thinks of democracy:"I don't think the way you advocate is to put everything online and say, 'All right American people, weigh in on that,' because then what's next?" Miller asked. "Are we going to let the American people decide our defense policy, our trade policy, our

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-57749590801970449662007-11-27T08:17:00.000-08:002007-11-27T08:19:08.441-08:00

It seems homogenous and homogeneous are actually two different words with distinct meanings. Who knew?

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-26495102618878615832007-10-12T07:02:00.000-07:002007-10-12T07:04:54.921-07:00

Sorry folks, but somehow I can't quite take Blog Action Day seriously. "What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day?" Prob'ly nothing. I do hope y'all prove me wrong.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-29863849951749466772007-09-14T08:02:00.000-07:002007-09-14T08:12:14.517-07:00

Der Spiegel reports on the mysterious absence of Janez Drnovšek, president of Slovenia (not to be confused with that other place), who has not been seen in public since July. Presidential spokesman Ivo Vajgl explained the unexpected cancellation of a meeting between Mr. Drnovšek and Italian prime minister Romano Prodi scheduled for this Monday by saying the president was enjoying his vacation and

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-6336863260361784662007-09-13T08:33:00.000-07:002007-09-13T08:34:55.866-07:00

Der Spiegel is covering a report from the Swiss Federal Commission Against Racism that condemns Switzerland's naturalization process as racist, largely because some individual citizenship applications are subject to popular vote in the applicant's municipality. The procedure fails to protect applicants' privacy and can expose them to racial discrimination, according to the report.Switzerland's

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-56044603498479713842007-08-31T10:28:00.000-07:002007-08-31T10:30:45.284-07:00

The Economist Blog is running a series of posts by guest blogger Chris Coyne on "the link between capitalism and democracy":To reiterate the connection between capitalism and democracy, free markets tend to foster democracy because private property, which is central to any notion of capitalism, produces a sphere of autonomy that grants each individual certain liberties. Private property disperses

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-35615403178826386202007-07-25T04:03:00.000-07:002007-07-25T04:05:26.215-07:00

I don't know where this is going, but it occurs to me that perhaps it's time to move beyond the buyer-seller paradigm in business and instead consider a model in which all parties are partners in a shared venture....

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-1170944192985140082007-02-08T06:04:00.000-08:002007-02-08T06:16:32.996-08:00

Doug Muir writes:I’ve known a lot of Bosnians. They’re lovely people. But their politicians are, by and large, the scum of the earth. Nowhere, not even in Serbia -- not even in Texas -- is there such a baffling contrast between likable, easy-going ordinary people and the venal, mean-spirited asstards they choose to lead them. It’s a disturbing mystery.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-1170854989821763462007-02-07T05:22:00.000-08:002007-02-07T05:29:49.860-08:00

Austin's own unintended monument to the dotcom meltdown, the skeleton of the never-finished Intel building at fifth and San Antonio, abandoned in 2001, is finally scheduled for demolition this month. About time!

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175074.post-1165502413493245642006-12-07T06:38:00.000-08:002006-12-07T06:40:13.506-08:00

Dogbert weighs in on the electronic voting debate.

MiGranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05495825081836632639noreply@blogger.com0