Feeling Grumpy
No, no, not what y'all might think. It's about the inevitable whining and complaining about the makeup of the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament.
What has me especially grumpy today are the comments by a number of KSU fans, more or less to the effect that "We finished fourth in the Big XII, why did Arizona get picked and not us, we're a better team" and other general unhelpful comments like that.
Well, purple people, it's kinda simple. KSU tied for fourth in the Big XII, and given the fourth seed in the conference tournament due to tie breakers, but, in the ways that matter to the Selection Committee, KSU was seventh (see, e.g., Strength of Schedule; RPI; performance against teams ranked in the top 50 RPI; and other such statistics). Yes, I agree; Arizona should not have been selected; but Arizona has a better overall "picture" than KSU.
That said, I hope KSU does well in the NIT (where, interestingly, KSU is a fourth seed). A young team gets great benefit from the extra practices and games played post-season, and KSU is a young team. Plus, with sufficient improvement, and given what appears to be a very good recruiting class, KSU may have a good shot at the NCAA tourney next year, which will benefit all members of the Big Xii financially (conference revenue sharing). The latter, by the way, is why I hope all members of the Big XII win as many games as possible; more $$ to split.
ROCK CHALK.
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Linux Mint (or the lazy way to get multimedia running on Linux)
As I have posted before, I'm running Linux on all my office computers, dual booting with Vista on a laptop for certain limited purposes.
I had reason to buy the younger a used laptop for her college graduation, and knowing she had some familiarity with Linux due to the influence of her brother-in-law, Ubuntu in particular, decided to set up a dual boot with XP. In doing so, and knowing her use of computers for a variety of things including, but not limited to watching videos, listening to music, etc., decided to try Linux Miint on her computer (with an installation on the laptop so I could monitor developments and help her if she needed it).
I've now upgraded to Mint6 (Code name Elyssa), and could not be more pleased. The OS functions as expected; I've been able to enable the wifi card more easily, now that the ath5k module is available (yes, the laptop has an Atheros 5007 card); and, with all other developments, am cruising along quite nicely with Mint.
For those who would like to "try out" a Linux distro, there are worse than Mint. It is based upon Ubuntu, the popularity of which is growing remarkably. So, if your computer has at least 512 mb RAM (to install; system runs on 256 mb), and you would like to try something different out, Mint may be downloaded as a "Live CD" iso from www.linuxmint.com, burned to CD as an image, and tried out as a live session, which essentially means you can run the OS without affecting your current Windows install at all. Performance will be slower than if actually installed, as it is running from the CD, but that is a good way to see if all your "stuff" works. Oh, almost forgot; if one is faint at heart, and the prospect of partitioning a hard drive is just too much, Mint6 (as may Ubuntu) may be installed "inside Windows" using an application developed for that purpose.
Should anyone be interested in pursuing this, post here, and I'll answer (albeit slowly) as best I can.
About My Wife
We would have celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary today, December 1; and this has me feeling down, emotionally.
Hopefully, time will pass, and I'll be able to deal with this better. Today, theough, the emotions are still raw, and I feel the need to put some words on this page in honor of my wife.
We first met as undergraduates at KU, in 1970. Our meeting was by chance. Judy and I were enrolled in the same section of two classes, Introduction to Managerial Accounting, and Statistics. It was Statistics class where we met.
I was a bit late to lecture that day, and my usual spot "on the back row" of the lecture hall was taken. Looking for an empty seat, I found one about half-way towards the front, next to two female students in the class. Happy to find a seat before class started that was not in the front row, I settled in for the hour.
It so happened that day, our first hour exams were being returned after grading. The professor gave a range of grades for the exam, 99 the highest; 16 the lowest, with the great majority of us scoring under 70, and had his grad students begin returning the exams. Mine was received first; a 68. Not what I'd hoped, but better than I'd expected. Then, the young woman sitting next to me received hers, and her grade was a 99. So, I thought, someone that I needed to become acquainted with if I was to have success in the class. As you may have guessed by now, that someone was Judy.
After class, I invited her to have a beer, an invitation she accepted, it being Friday. So, we proceeded to the Wheel, ordered a beer and began to get acquainted. Time passed, and when it was time for the Wheel to close, we left, wondering how we had managed to spend over 8 hours talking with each other. That was the beginning of our relationship; and, it happily, for the most part, continued for some 38 years.
During the long conversation of that afternoon and evening, we learned we had much in common; so much, it was as if I was talking to someone I'd known all my life. And so it went on, during our time together; never a day passed without us finding something about which to talk at length, be it a class; the Air Force; our jobs, our children. This is what I'm missing most right now; the opportunity to have a conversation with her about things happening around us.
So it goes, as I struggle with the contemplation of my life going forward without my best friend to share the highs and the lows of my day. I'm finding that I see or hear something, and think to myself that's something I need to talk about with Judy, only to realize that isn't going to happen now, and to then fall into a funk. Sure, I can talk with our younger daughter, who is a tower of strength right now for me, but things that are or were important to Judy and me aren't always things that are important to her.
I think, having talked with my mother who has been widowed some 34 years, this will continue for a while, and it will eventually get "better". I just wish the "better" could happen now.
Thanksgiving will not seem right this year
I will admit to suffering from a case of melancholy this afternoon. Judy's death is starting to hit home, and despite being kept busy by all those things that one must do when a family member dies, this afternoon I believe I have hit a wall.
The cause of this is, I believe, the talk around me of Thanksgiving, preparations therefor, and the anticipation of being with family and friends. Looking back, this will be the first Thanksgiving I've not spent with Judy for 38 years.
Our first Thanksgiving together was at the home of one of her best friends in college; Judy always spent Thanksgiving with her sister and brother-in-law while at KU, as the break was not of sufficient duration to go home to Tacoma, WA. Jo and Ken resided in Manhattan, and she always traveled there. The year in question, Ken's step-father was gravely ill, and they had traveled to Coffeyville to be with his mother, leaving Judy without a place to go.
As we had started to become a couple, the natural answer was to spend Thanksgiving together in Lawrence. I was not on call at the mortuary that day, and plans were made to celebrate together at her apartment. Unfortunately, two problems immediately became apparent; I was on call the night before, and would not be available to help with cooking; and, she didn't have the correct "stuff" to do a turkey. So, we decided we would have Thanksgiving dinner out, but back then, there were no restaurants open in Lawreance on Thanksgiving day.
In swooped Gail to the rescue. She lived in Kansas City; her folks knew Judy; and they were willing to set an extra plate at the table for this really strange guy they had never met before. Things went well that day, and so we thereafter spent Thanksgiving together until this year.
I'll miss getting up very early Thursday morning to fire up the smoker to do the brisket that Judy marinated beginning late Tuesday night (it turned out that she really didn't like turkey) along with the other things I could do on the smoker; then filling the time until the brisket was done (rule of thumb: an hour per pound plus an hour for the smoker) watching the "tube", particularly the NFL game involving her beloved Dallas Cowboys (and, if we were indeed fortunate, watching the other game if her more beloved Green Bay Packers were playing), talking about the annual "Tolle family brawl" a/k/a my family's Thanksgiving dinner which is either Saturday or Sunday after Thanksgiving proper and what we were bringing this year. Her recipe box always held a surprise for my family, and our annual contribution was always looked forward to by the others; in the later years, wondering how Lindsay was doing that day at Colby; and generally, just passing the time allowing the dinner to digest.
This year, it will be just Lindsay and me joining (as plans are right now) the blogger from the older WEBlog days known as "rm" for dinner at a local eatery. Before anyone gets carried away, all three of us have been invited multiple places; in the case of Lindsay and me, we don't fell all the sociable right now. I won't speak for rm; he has his own reasons. If this doesn't work out, well, Lindsay and I will muddle through. It is just going to be different, and this time, the difference hurts; really hurts.
Spiro Agnew Palin?
Much debate has arisen about the experience factor of Gov. Sarah Palin after her selection by Sen. McCain as his Vice-Preidential candidate. For those of us who are old enough, it recalls a similar situation some forty years ago.
In 1968, Richard Nixon selected Spiro T. Agnew, the governor of Maryland, as his vice-presidential running mate. The announcement came as a surprise to many observers who had not heard of the person selected, who at the time, was in his first term as Governor of Maryland, being elected in 1966. His prior elected political career at the time he ran for Governor had been, as I recall, holding an office in the Baltimore, Maryland City Executive, for some three to four years. Again, from memory, his selection was a part of the GOP "Southern Strategy".
Fast forward forty years. Again, the GOP has selected a little-known governor in the first term to be its vice-presidential candidate, whose prior experience in elected office was as a mayor of a small town. Apparently, the selection is again based upon a perceived political need; this time, to bring a younger, female candidate to the ticket who, in addition to appealing to the "base", would hopefully appeal to women voters, especially the "independent" ones that both parties court.
I'm not suggesting any other similarities between Gov. Agnew and Gov. Palin. But, the comparison to "Dan Quayle in a skirt" doesn't hold, in my mind. Rather, the analogy should be to Spiro T. Agnew.
Will the "Bradley Effect" be in play in 2008?
In my procrastination this morning, I read a blogger posting on the Huffington Post, suggesting that unless Sen. Obama selects Sen. Clinton as his running mate, he will lose the presidential election. After overcoming my first reaction, namely another Hillary supporter venting her spleen, I gave some thought to just what she was saying.
The "Bradley Effect" is named after Tom Bradley, the african-american mayor of LA, who ran for governor of California. I do not recall the year, but it was a while ago. All polls showed him with a substantial lead, pre-election; once the votes were counted, he lost.
Much academic thought has gone into the Effect; there seems to be an uneasy consensus that it appears in elections where a black is running for elective office of high importance, e.g., Governor; Senator; President, and an uneasiness develops, often not given true weight until the voter is in the voting booth, about voting for such a person. Some have gone so far as to accuse white respondents to polls of lying to the pollsters, so they don't appear racist; whatever the cause, it appears to be real.
The blogger pointed out her reasons for placing Hillary on the ticket as overcoming this effect; one, as I recall, being that if a white male is the running mate, it doesn't overcome the Effect, as the lead candidate is still Black, compared to a White man as the vice presidential nominee, which results in unfavorable comparisons. Her solution is that as Hillary is not a white male, these comparisons cannot be drawn.
While I'm not sure about her proposed solution, I am sure that the Effect is real. What do you think?
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