Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.
Confucius
Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning 15 Years Ago?
As I'm writing this comment, I'm watching "Flight 93" on A&E. I never saw one of at least 3 movie versions on their original release. I'm not sure why; I think I'm a natural suspect of how the movie industry reinvents even original fiction, never mind real-life events with speculative aspects of the final moments of Flight 93. I also don't like to intrude on the grief of surviving family members.
There are a few moments that are seared in our memories. For example, I remember praying the rosary as a kid in the Catholic school courtyard when JFK was assassinated, delivering my high school valedictory, and my doctoral oral comprehensive exam. 9/11 is one of those moments, and I've retold my experience.
It started out like every other day for me. A SW Chicago area consulting company had recruited me for a suburban Milwaukee Oracle EBS upgrade project. (I had originally contacted them over an Austin, TX area project which hadn't started yet, but their reference project, a fixed-bid project in Wisconsin, was in trouble, and the company president had persuaded me to join. There were only about 4 months left on the contract (there is always the hope of project 2.0, but I thought there was a high risk of another relocation, twice within 6 months). They demanded that I relocate, unwilling to pay more than a month of travel expenses from California. On the other hand, commuting from SW Chicago would have added at least another 45 minutes for a commute each way, so I decided to live in the NW suburb of Buffalo Grove, which had a Metra train station to downtown Chicago. Still, I had about an 83-mile one-way commute to the county courthouse. The county DBA's were responsible for backing up the test server we were using, but they were not Apps DBA's and occasionally the Apps services were not available for testing at 8 AM in the morning. So I was required to be there at 7:30 AM in the morning to make sure services were available. Thus, I had to be on the road by 6 AM. Also, I was not allowed to implement frequent patches until after 7 PM. (They recruited me dishonestly in negotiating salary, saying a bonus would compensate for long hours; the HR people would later tell me that it said somewhere in the employee handbook there are no bonuses for fixed-bid contracts,) I often had dinner at 11 PM - midnight, not that unusual in my road warrior consulting experience. I was lucky if I got 6 hours of sleep.
So I had already been at the courthouse for at least 90 minutes; my Indian developer colleague on the project did what management wanted and moved to Wisconsin. He didn't have my higher responsibilities on the project and so usually came in maybe 9 AM or so. We were within a month or so of going live with the upgrade, so I was busy with all the details as the tech lead. Among other things, the contract required me to walk the two client DBA's through upgrade processes. I and a handful of other contractors occupied basement cubicles in the courthouse basement. My colleague seemed very agitated, rambling incoherently about planes hitting the Twin Towers. I wasn't sure what was going on; I didn't see the videos until later. I thought maybe they were talking about a small private plane in a freakish accident. One or 2 county employees brought in portable TV's, and to a certain extent, I was annoyed: it seemed like I was the only one in the building working. It soon became clear to me that this was a terrorist plot, especially as I learned about the Pentagon attack and Flight 93.
There can be no moral justification for those crimes against humanity. I am not a truther or a conspiracy theorist. I dislike the blowback theories, which seem to suggest that we are responsible for the deliberate attacks against innocent civilians. Still, I believe there are unintended consequences to foreign interventionism, and we need to limit the relevant risks. NEVER AGAIN!
Tweet of the Day
As a disgruntled former UTEP prof, I was happy to see my alma mater Longhorns beat the snot out of the Miners. But I would rather see A&M.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
#WhereWereYou I was an IT consultant working in the Waukesha County Courthouse. A locally-based colleague watching Today broke the news.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
Everyone knows Spock's Vulcan nerve pinch. Not demonstrated was the grip Vulcan women use to mate. #FakeStarTrekFacts— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
Rudy Giuliani is growing ever more incoherent and irrelevant. He endorsed Trump's concept of stealing Arab oil, which plays into propaganda.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
State-based theft, whether in the form of unjust taxation or international conquest, is a violation of the rights of others. #NeverTrump— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
Trump's bellicose rhetoric is knowing bluster; he's simply trying to channel & manipulate the frustration of the fear-manipulated populace.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
Image of the DayThe problem with irresponsible foreign policy rhetoric from incompetent Trump or Clinton is that it can take on a life of its own.— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) September 11, 2016
Hillary Clinton and Obstruction of Justice
Protecting Liberty Through Fidelity to the Constitution
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Gary Varvel via Townhall |
BJ Thomas (with Dusty Springfield), "As Long As We Got Each Other". The theme song of a 80s/90s sitcom featuring a family including Kirk Cameron (note: the song had several versions over the seasons, including a solo and other duet partners). This is the final song of my BJ retrospective.
