Paris Burning!

Well, it's been ages (again) since I've written anything. Sometimes I wonder why I keep on doing this, since I hardly ever write anything anymore, and hardly anyone ever reads what I write. I must admit writing here is somewhat cathartic for me at times, so that must be the reason I keep it up. I find that when my work-a-day world gets to be a major headache (which is a lot of the time lately), writing on this blog helps me feel better. "Pete's Journal" is an apt name; I don't blog here, in the strict sense of daily commentary and updates. It really is an online journal, where I write whatever crosses my mind whenever I feel like doing it.

Almost a month ago now (October 8th) I hit my two-year blogiversary (a goofy way of saying I've kept this up now for over two years!). So, I guess I'm somewhat hooked on it.

So here's the latest: work has been (as usual) taking up a lot of my time and emotional energy. The project I'm working on is really difficult: huge and complicated, with people working on it in three dispersed geographical locations. The planning (IMHO) hasn't been very good and neither has the requirements gathering and analysis. On my part, the architecture I did for the subsystem I'm working on (by "subsystem" I mean a major part of the overall project - on the order of 50-100K lines of code, maybe 100 classes, around 25 user interface screens) didn't work out that well. The design was a bit radical, and I was hoping that it would save us a lot of development time and effort, but it didn't turn out that way. The code works OK, but the hoped-for savings in time and complexity didn't materialize at all, and the whole thing has turned into a slog through the mud just to meet the basic requirements. On the upside, it's some pretty advanced stuff which may turn into one or more patents for me and another engineer that worked on it (if the software is patented, then I may get some cash out of it, even though I don't own the intellectual property).

Because I've been working so many hours, and my commute is so long (yeah, more whining about that, too), I haven't had much time to write - same story, different day.

Random Stuff I've Been Following, Kind Of

So, what's up in France? I thought the French enlightened attitude meant that they weren't going have any trouble with Islamic extremism. Actually, this is too serious for snarkiness. I really hope that the violence ends soon - innocent people get caught up in stuff like this. I also hope that more people on both sides of the Atlantic start taking Islamic extremism more seriously. The extremists are eating away at Islam like a cancer. I'm afraid of what is going to happen if moderate and liberal (in the classical sense of the word) Muslims don't regain control of their religion. A full-blown clash of civilizations wouldn't be good for anyone.

I see that Michelle Malkin has a new book out that looks interesting and funny. It's called Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. I'm looking forward to reading it - perhaps I'll ask my wife to buy it for me for Christmas or my birthday. Given the nastiness that some leftist hate mongers have said and written about Ms. Malkin (which I've commented on before) and other minority Republicans, I suspect it was a pretty easy book for her to write. Perhaps she'll do a book tour like she did for In Defense of Internment, and I can get an autographed copy of her new book, too!

The Pajamas Media website is featuring Michelle today in a profile, with a nice picture and interview.

Another of my favorite bloggers/writers also has a new book out. If you haven't read anything by James Lileks, leave my lame web site now, go to www.lileks.com/bleats/ and start reading stuff by someone that actually knows how to write. Lileks' new book is called Mommy Knows Worst. It's about the crazy advice that the (ahem) experts from years past gave to parents on raising kids. Of course, now that we're in such an enlightened age, parents don't do weird stuff anymore, right? Riiight.

So, President Bush has nominated another candidate for the Supreme Court. I have to say that I'm glad that Ms. Miers' nomination was withdrawn. I haven't paid that much attention to the whole issue, but I was very surprised that someone with no judicial experience at all was nominated, no matter what her other qualifications were. Judge Alito seems to me to be a much better choice - and it doesn't bother me at all that he has the leftists' panties all in a bunch. In fact, I see that as evidence that he's the right guy for the job.

I'm sad to see that Rosa Parks has passed away. She sparked a movement - still ongoing - that has made and is making America a better place. Racism and racial prejudice are ugly and evil, and I'm glad that the U.S. has made a great deal of progress in getting rid of it. Clearly, there's still a long way to go. When you read some of the hypocritical racist harangues of some leftists towards minority conservatives (see Michelle Malkin's blog for some disturbing examples), it's clear that racism is not bound by political ideology. It just needs to stop, no matter where it comes from, or why.

What are the Senate Democrats doing? Why in the world did they force the Senate into a closed-door session to talk about pre-war WMD intelligence? It's just crazy. Here's a little tidbit of intelligence for the Democrats in the Senate: it's too late! The war has already happened! Playing the blame game at this point is worse than useless - it's disgusting party politics that could ultimately lead to failure in Iraq. If the U.S. military were to pull out now, Iraq very well could collapse into chaos and/or civil war, which is exactly what Al Qaeda wants. Success in Iraq, and the whole of the Middle East for that matter, is too important to be messing around with. Political stunts like the one the Democrats pulled this week are not helpful. They really ought to grow up.

Well, that's it for now. I've got to get to bed. I don't know when my next post will be - but that's par for the course!

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