The Steussy Ranch

When I was a teenager, I was the only person I ever met who obsessively read science and science fiction. I didn’t meet anyone else with the same tastes until I went to college and even there the number of folk was pretty small.

Growing older, I have run into a cadre of people with similar influences through books, literature and the web. It seems clear, for instance, that most of the readership of Slashdot had similar influences when they were growing up.

The best one that I’ve seen recently is Paul Krugman, this year’s Nobel Prize winner in Economics. When asked by PBS interviewer Jim Leher why he got interested in economics, Krugman said it was because of an Isaac Asimov book he read as a youngster. He wanted to be the psychohistorian Hari Seldon from the Foundation series and, since there is no psychohistory, economics was as close as he could get.

Even if I don’t personally contribute to the world in the ways I imagined years ago, it is thoroughly gratifying to see people with the same influences shaping the world around us. This is my time. And I’m so damn happy about it.

The Foundation series may be headed to the movies. I think it would be great fun …

These are our photos from Thanksgiving 2008 at Chris and Norma’s. Click below for more.

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Alex is here in Temecula-land for the first time in three years. We’re here prior to heading out to the Chris’ Steussy’s for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.

Here is the crowd at Stone Brewery. What had once been a solo trip for Uncle Ed to go down to fill up a growler of beer morphed into a family gathering of six. Solana is looking very cute and very, very small.

Ashley wins! And Rich is still in command of the annual total, though by fewer points now. Gabi pointed out to me last night that I had incorrectly assigned her two points to Green Bay, when she had chosen New Orleans. Oops. My fault. Too late to correct it.

Great game with Indianapolis and San Diego! I wish we’d managed to go to that one … “Hurray! I’m for the other team!” (Click image to see the video from 1974.)

Something I’ve been working on for awhile. Need more data before I can post fully. Will get to it soon.

I just filled up the Toyota for $16. Wow!

Yes, I want the economic calamity over as much as anyone else, but can we please keep gas at this level?

Our New Ford, July 2004

I just watched part of the testimony to the Senate Banking Committee by the three US automaker CEO’s and the head of the United Auto Workers (UAW). The best wrap-up is here. Very entertaining, particularly when Senator Corker (R-Tennessee) had the UAW rank the auto company most likely to go bankrupt. It was GM.

Ford admitted that it did not need the money. They were just there because of GM. We’re pretty happy with our Ford minivan, save for the gas mileage which is far below the Japanese competitors’.

Please don’t give public money to these losers. Make them earn it in the marketplace, building things that people actually want and will pay good, hard-earned money for.

How, in God’s name, does Peter King write so much about football on Sunday nights? It takes me over half an hour to read the dang thing (between Google searches for unfamiliar names). And he’s reviewing 14 games, or 42 hours of action, in order to produce that column.

My conclusion: there is no Peter King. Peter King is just the front man for about 20 sportswriters sitting in a back room somewhere in New Jersey.

Yes, Ed has won again! Go me! It was a tough week for picks. Rich is now in the lead for the year, with Gabi and Ed close behind him.