8:30 a.m. is the best time for a gas powered leaf blower

Damn gardeners. Don’t they know I work nights?

… So I am now able to leave the country when I want. I have a passport, and surprisingly fast I might add. I applied for it on a Monday and got it eight days later.

The one thing I did notice was that the passport was property of the government. If that is the case, then why did I have to pay for it? Maybe it should be called a rental if that’s the case. Or maybe I’m just being stupid about it.

… It has been two weeks since I shaved last. I’ve only let my facial hair grow out once before. When I was a freshman in college and that was a fu manchu and it was only for a month.

I just decided one day to stop for some reason. Maybe it is because I trying something different or I just don’t care about my outside appearance and am telling the world “Bite me.” I think it’s more of the first.

I don’t know how much longer I’m going to keep this. But when I do decide to shave it off, what am I going to do?

One option is to get some electrical clippers and cut it down that way so I can use razor. Or take the more manly approach and go to a barber where they will use the long sharp blade. A friend of mine had that done and told me there is nothing scarier than seeing the blade out of the corner of your eye moving towards your face.

… More than a week ago, I was walking through an Albertson’s getting groceries when I found a DVD I had been looking for at a sale price. “The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert s. McNamara” was the 2003 Academy Award winner for best documentary. Being a documentary makes it hard to find at places. But at Albertson’s, it was $10, a bargain for the story to be told.

The documentary is basically an interview with McNamara who was Secretary of Defense for President Kennedy and Johnson during most of the ’60s, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. McNamara not only talks about that, but his whole life.

The 11 life lessons are powerful. Not all of the 11 life lessons apply only to war, except for No. 5, and can be used by the average person.

1. Empathize with your enemy.
2. Rationality will not save us.
3. There’s something beyond one’s self.
4. Maximize efficiency.
5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war.
6. Get the data.
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
10. Never say never.
11. You can’t change human nature.

The documentary does a good job in explaining each lesson at the same time making the viewer relate to it.

If you have a chance, check it out.