Catching Up

Sorry, I've been remiss in posting over the last few days. We successfully wrapped up our work in Milwaukee, and it is off to Cincinnati tomorrow. My friend Laura Werts lives there, so I will try to meet up with her for dinner or something and see how things are in Reds country. This trip will mark the first time that I am choosing a Best Western as my hotel for the trip. This isn't from a lack of choices, but rather because this hotel is a) close to the work site, and b) one that has been recommended to me by about half a dozen different people, so I figured I'll give it a shot.

In other news I have purchased the game Galactic Civilizations II for my computer, and it is threatining to take over my life. I played the first Galactic Civilizations game when it came out a few years ago, and it was much fun. This version, however, lets you actually design your own spacehips. And these ships can be visually customized with literally hundreds of items, some of which have game reasons for being there (like lasers and missile launchers and engines and so forth), while others are solely for visual flair. And we know that we all need 14 pieces of flair, minimum, so my ships have lots of flair. It is much fun.

The Mystery of Capital

The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto, 2000, Basic Books

I have been hearing about this book for at least 5 years, and it was supposed to be an amazing, viewpoint-changing experience, so I figured that I should probably get around to reading it. I can't say that it radically changed my views of capitalism in respect to other competing economic systems, but the author does do an excellent job of explaining exactly why the 3rd world always seems to miss out on capitalistic expansions. While "the West" keeps getting richer, other people miss out and stay relatively poor. Why is this? Are they stupid? Are they lazy?

No, they aren't stupid and they aren't lazy. The problem is that everyone seems to have forgotten that capitalsim is all about capital (hence the name). And in the 3rd world, most people are not allowed to develop capital because they don't own official property. Why? I liked the flow chart that showed how it would take literally 18 years to follow all the legal channels to buy property legally in Haiti. It is so ridiculous, that nobody outside of the system bothers trying to get on the inside, so they just squat on land and "own" it in this fashion. Because they lack legal title, however, they can't use that land or house as collateral for a loan, a basic thing Americans like me take for granted. I must say that I had never thought about it before, but it totally makes sense.

My only problem with this book is that it felt too long. It's only about 230 pages sans end notes and index, so it isn't physically that long, but it really only takes the author about 150 pages to make his point, and the rest of the book is him hammering the same point over and over and over again. It gets tedious, but this is still an important book for everyone who cares about helping the poor attain the benefits of the global economic system.

Visiting the other beer town

So I'm in Milwaukee this week for another audit project. I like coming to Milwaukee, though I've never been able to pin down why. It is a fairly blue collar town, like St. Louis, and I like places like that. It is the home of Sprecher's root beer, which scores points. Other than that, I can't really say, other than that it simply has a good feel. It is a place that I could easily live, and if I ever needed to move to Milwaukee for work or other reasons, I would not be opposed.

The fact that Milwaukee also holds my favorites restaurant, Mo's Steakhouse, doesn't hurt either. I ate there tonight, in fact. It was excellent, as always.

Outside of that, I saw Al MacInnis at the airport yesterday. We nodded to each other. It was excellent, as always.

My Posse

As I play around with my digital camera, I figured I would introduce you all to my posse this week, also known as my brother's animals.


This is Sadie, the dog (obviously). She is very needy and wants my attention all the time. You will note the plush squirrel she has defeated. She likes to use this to play her favorite game, "I have it and you don't." This game involves running around in circles while I chase her. It seems to be very exciting to Sadie, but it just wears me out.


And these are the rabbits (a.k.a., "the boys"), Whiskers and Butterscotch. Butterscotch is my personal favorite, mainly because he doesn't cause any problems. Unlike Sadie, these fellow require about 10 minutes of attention per day.

In case you were wondering, this is a "never the twain shall meet" situation. They have lived in the same house for over 4 years, but Sadie has never actually met the boys, because we don't think the boys would live through the encounter. Sadie likes to play rough.

The unGuide to Dating

The unGuide to Dating by Camerin Courtney and Todd Hertz, 2006, Revell

As a 32 year old man who has never been married, I must admit that I find the general American Christian church's approach to singleness to be disheartening. This is because the standard approach treats us all as glorified youth, and most Christian leaders simply can't imagine what our lives are like. The dating "advice" that they give is also really aimed at teenagers, and not at adults. Hence, the opening for a book such as this. Written by two magazine editors in their 30s who have never been married, the book focuses on the adult dimensions of the dating game. However, it isn't a dating guide as such, hence the rather odd title. I didn't like the title when I first encountered this book, but after reading it I must admit that it is rather apt.

Secular dating books will try to teach you how to be more attractive to the oppostite sex, or great pickup lines, or places to go to meet single people, that kind of thing. This book doesn't do that. This book focuses on how to approach relationships (including potential romantic ones) in a Christian way, as well as relevant topics such as should the man or woman make the first move, body image, inter-gender friendships, and so on. Interestingly enough, while many questions are raised, almost no answers are given. At first blush this might indicate that the book is failing. On the contrary, most of the questions don't have one set answer to begin with, and each individual must answer the questions for themselves.

The book itself is only slightly over 200 pages, and there is liberal use of white space, so it reads pretty fast. Overall, it does a good job with its topic and should prove useful to its target audience.