Rolling Thoughts

Memorial Day

This day always hits me hard. Every year since I walked through the US & German military cemeteries overlooking the beaches of Normandy, but especially these last 4, I've thought about the loss of those who serve. I walked through those rows of immaculately kept grave markers and the tears ran down my face as I was brought face to face with the sacrifice these men made. In the last years, women as well.

I have always despised war. It is a hideous and disgusting facet of human society. But I honor those men and women who serve & sacrifice their lives in our military.

At one point in time I was considering attending West Point .... at another after graduating, joining the Marines. If I hadn't fell in love with UC Davis for the first or if the recruiter had been a little bit more reasonable for the second there is a very good chance that I would be serving in uniform right now.

Last week I listened to a story on NPR about a young man who saved the lives of his Marine platoon when he covered a live grenade with his body. Miraculously he survived long enough to be evacuated to Germany & then to DC where his family could be with him before he died. At no time ever was he left alone. Marines or Corpsman were with him every minute while he fought for life. When his life support was turned off, the Commandant of the Marine Corp was there to stand vigil.

It isn't right that our generation go through this.

Garry Trudeau, keep up the good work.

Paintball...this time it's war!

The Place: A forested area in Virginia
The Day: A beautiful sunny day
The Teams: Operon. Qiagen.
The result: Operon kicked their ass!

This is just way to scary

Integrity & accounting

My boss and I have an unnofficial 3-legged race going on in regard to out gaming rigs. He just upgraded his graphics card to the newest Radeon. I in turn got those 2 Dell flatscreens.
Last week when mine came in he asked me how they were performing and if they were good he was going to buy 2 (one for his wife) for their home gaming rigs. He was traveling and asked me to order them for him.

Now here's the interesting bit. He didn't want me to order them through the company. His company. As in the owner. He insisted that the order be placed on his credit card. When I asked why he said that he felt strongly about keeping his personal finances separate from the company.

How many accounting scandals in the past 5 years were due to executives mixing the two?

This is just one more reason why I respect the man.

Ooooh....new toys

I got a new pair of flat screen monitors from Dell yesterday. Oh WOW!!! The one on the left is a 24" 1920x1200. The right 19" 1024x768 for a reference screen. I was drooling last night.