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Complex Systems, the Saga Continues
Remember my little rant about messing with complex systems and how feeding the birds resulted in my having to wash the skunk smell off our dog, Roni? Well, there is yet another chapter to this … I was working in the office last night, when I heard Roni rustling around in the living room. She…
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Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
He was manning a small booth at the Deschutes County Fair today. Middle aged, clean shaven, smiling gently, and not a soul around his booth. I was too hot under the mid-day sun to take the time to talk to him, but I was intriqued enough to grab a flyer as we walked by. Fortunately…
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Six White Guys Walk Into A Bar …
The scene is this: Six reasonably large, middle-age men are packed into a four-person booth at a local brewery. The empty pitcher of beer on the table between them contained, briefly, a rich, dark, honey-flavored stout before it was poured into their respective glasses. What beer remains is sipped at contentedly as the conversation bounces…
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Another Complex System
I’ve written before about complex systems and how messing with them tends to bite one in the butt. So I guess it should come as no surprise that I would experience this first hand. We are fortunate to have an office that looks out on a nice high desert landscape that is frequented by deer…
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I Know an Old Lady Who Killed a Fly…
My wife looks up and says, “There’s a big bug over here.” To her credit, she says this very matter-of-factly. But there is the implicit, “… and you better deal with it ’cause that’s your job, boy.” Which I do of course, but not without pointing out that an ant hardly qualifies as a “big…