Cold Hearted Orracle

The local news is all a-buzz with the rising Red River. 1997 was catastrophic with the river hitting 37.1 feet. I think flood stage is something like 10 feet given the god-forsaken-flat-ass-barren land that it is surrounded by. With the rain this week, extra snow and fairly quick rise in temps to melt the snowbase, it is predicted to crest at or above 40 feet.

So now, we mobilize the National Guard. We close schools so kids can help sandbag. We all go into "caring and giving" mode to help those that are "victims". Are they really victims though?

A tornado? Hit or miss. Could be here or there. Might be big or small.

A blizzard? Hit or miss. Might be Southern, might be Northern. Might cause damage, might not.

An ice storm? Oh, hell - you get the idea.

A flood does not randomly drop itself unsuspectingly on people. It tends to follow the same path. In fact, the Red River Valley is a natural flood plain. It is designed to FLOOD!

Call it a "one in 100 years flood" if you want but it can happen every year....especially to a river that flows NORTH into still frozen waters.

I have the same (lack of) sympathy for those in New Orleans. Hurricanes will come again. You live at and/or below sea level. DON'T BUILD FRIGGIN HOUSES THERE.

Tragedies are sad. I do feel bad for people going though them. There is a demoitvator at www.despair.com that says "Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots!" Then again, there is a poster on that site that says, "BLOGGING: Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few."

Farewell from your heartless Orracle.

RSS - My "NEW" Obsession

I guess I have always spotted the RSS symbol and even knew what it was. I have not taken the time to use it until messing with sharepoint at work and getting issues logs setup for cross team use. RSS feeds are great because it takes the risk of apathetic people out of projects to a degree by bring the new information to them vs them having to take the time to look at it.

Now, I am obsessed. RSS is the coolest thing ever. It brings the internet to you.

I realize that me coming to realize this on March 19, 2009 is kind of like someone finally moving from VHS to DVD. I am loving this especially with the Outlook 2007 RSS functionality.

OK, geekiness be gone now. I just have to learn now if people can use RSS on my blog or if I have to physically add it to the page. Let's enjoy this much for now.

Flatline....

All the last week plus, I have had items drifting into my mind that I wanted to post. Sitting in the deer stand (no, Al, I was not a Bambi Killer this year)...driving to and from my dad's....flying today to Richmond. And then....I sit here looking at a blank screen. I cannot remember anything.

What the hell is wrong with me? Certainly something must be bothering me. Something must have sparked my interest enough to post about it.

I KNOW there was something I wanted to post. I am pretty sure it had to do with something Al would relate to. But it is gone. Welcome to old age Lyle....oops, I revealed my true name....take 2....Welcome to old age Orracle.

I guess I will just move on. I will go to my meetings tomorrow. Perhaps then I will have that spark back to come to my room and post the post that everyone has been waiting for. Yep. It's coming. I can feel it.

Cool Blogsite

Blogs are cool. They are a place to say what you feel to anyone and everyone. Most are "old fashioned" and are typed such as mine. Some can link to YouTube videos. Very few are true video blogs.

The one I bring to you here just happens to be my brother in law's. He is a Fox News guy in Chicago. Mark has a great intuition to find the story and a knack for asking the question. This is not unlike what I look for in a good business analyst. When I interview for a BA, I look for intuition. I look for someone that can ask great questions but more importantly, find more questions in the answers. I believe this is one of the great talents that Mark has along with other minor traits such as charm, a good voice and authenticity.

Despite his relation, I have only recently found his video blog. I have watched most of the segments and found them interesting and entertaining. Not many people would even dare sit down in a room with guys from 5+ different gangs especially when he is the odd man out when it comes to race, income and future in most people's eyes. Some may go in the room but not dare ask them the hard questions like why they do what they do. Why don't they want to change. Why would they want to stay in that life with such a high mortality rate. Tough stuff.

I hope you all take a jump over there and give it a look. BLOG LINK

I've Been Outdone

Hey everyone~

I asked Ashlie if she had read my blog at all. Mainly I wanted her to see the happy birthday to her on there but it never hurts to go and promote for new readers...

She apparently liked the idea because she created one of her own. The title surprises me since she is more of an instrumentalist than a singer. What instruments you ask? Well, Alto Sax, Soprano Sax, Piano very well. Newly added are Clarinet, Flute (no comments from the American Pie crowd, please) and guitar.

At any rate, take a look over to her blog and leave her a comment if you can. Her first post is great. I should just retire or have her write my posts I guess. On second thought, she gives me the credit in her header, so I'll stick around.

Introducing A Capella Ashlie

Over and out,
The Orracle.