I'm Alive

So far, I’ve managed to survive the flood unscathed, besides downed power, Internet and servers. The rest of Bethel hasn’t been so lucky. Photos will follow as my Internet situation improves.

Commentary on FailPoint

This little gem is from my colleague. It clearly illustrates the present status of telecommunications in Vermont, and probably the rest of northern New England.

200 Squats – Completed

Last night as I prepared to do my final exhaustion test before strting week 6 of the 200 squats challenge, I decided to just go all out. In my previous tests, I’d always stopped short of really exhausting myself, so I decided this time would be different.
It was. I finished them. Straight to 200. Actually, I may have done 215. I lost count around 160 and it could have been 170, so I did 15 more for good measure.
Now, I shall spend the rest of the day on the couch.

Shobu Aikido Vermont Summer Gasshukku with William Gleason Sensei

This weekend I had the pleasure of training with William (Bill) Gleason Sensei, who taught several classes at our dojo in Woodstock, Vermont. Gleason Sensei has been incorporating more techniques to develop internal control and power into his teachings, which is still new to me, and very interesting. I am looking forward to more of this training in the near future.

40th Anniversary of Osensei Morihei Ueshiba's Passing

On April 26, 1969, Morihei Ueshiba, best known as the Founder of Aikido and referred to by aikidoka as? ?sensei (“Great Teacher”) and , died at the age of 85. ?sensei’s legacy lives on today, as Aikido is practiced around the world, with his students and their students continuing to hand down his teachings.

Scam of the Day: Stimulus Payment, Python, Pants, and Bombing.

This one just came in via my mom. I consider myself fortunate enough to have a mom who can recognize a good scam when she sees one.
And, on that note, is anyone else reeling from astounding spike in spam over the last couple of weeks? I mean everywhere, from email to IM to Skype, to blogs and other web forms. Everything from these scams to the traditional 419 to a “python in my pants.”
Side note:

Dear Spammer, please take note: I used to handle boa constrictors and have no desire to have a python in my pants.
Thanks,
Peter

Thought of the day: can we route the military to do something useful, like bombing spammers? Thanks.

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From: "Internal Revenue Service"<[email protected]>
Subject: Stimulus Payment form it's ready for you to submit
Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:32:47 -0000
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After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that
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